To action at Donington ParkTwo weeks after crashing during practice in Catalunya and ruling himself out of his home race, Jorge Lorenzo made a welcome return to the track on his Fiat Yamaha M1 at the British Grand Prix today. After his sensational start to the season, the
youngest rider on the grid has undergone a torrid time since fracturing both his ankles in China at the start of May and he is now riding with a special glove on his right hand to protect the skin graft that he underwent 12 days ago.
Lorenzo's focus today was simply to find the feeling back on board his bike and to build his confidence, which he freely admits has suffered in his recent string of crashes. The Michelin rider finished the day a lowly 16th in the combined standings but is looking forward to feeling more relaxed and confident tomorrow and trying to improve things step-by-step.
Jorge Lorenzo : "Today was always going to be a hard day for me and I had to start very slowly because honestly I felt some fear after all of my problems! I haven't ridden since the crash in practice in Catalunya and I have lost some confidence, so the aim this weekend is just to find it again. Today the main target was to try to find my feeling with the bike and also to check my physical shape, which is okay although I do have some pain in my hand and finger where I had the skin graft. I am happy to be back however and I hope that the worst is over and that tomorrow I will be more relaxed and have more confidence. We are starting from scratch again this weekend so we have to go step-by-step and take things slowly."
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager : "Finally we have Jorge back after Barcelona and we're very pleased about this! Now we are just looking to re-build his confidence by taking things gently and easily, without risking too much. For sure he will need some time before he is back to his best but there is no pressure on him. Meanwhile we also need to work hard on improving the bike setting because we are lacking some rear grip and the bike is quite nervous at full lean. Together with Michelin we will analyse the data tonight and study some solutions to help us with this tomorrow."
