Abnormal front tyre wear forced Jorge Lorenzo into a rethink in todays Czech MotoGP in Brno.
Starting from fourth position, Lorenzo appeared to be lacking the pace of the leaders early in the race falling down to fifth position half way through the race before fighting back in the closing stages.
Lorenzo looked like the biggest challenger to Dovizioso for the victory in the final laps, after a rethink over strategy with his usual check out of the front tactic out of the window.
“A great race and a great result for the team, because first and second is fantastic,” Lorenzo said after the race.
“Obviously I would be happier with a victory but knowing how we started the weekend, we were quite lost in Friday and how we improved the setting on the bike and my riding during the weekend, we must be very proud and very happy.
“Because this time I need to change the strategy almost like an obligation because I have some problems to finish the race on the front tyre and on the right side so I needed to ride quite a bit different from the beginning. Taking profit from a not so good start I decided to start in third position for so long so save energy and tyres, this was new for me, very new.
“But this time, based of this new strategy because I have a very good speed and I was very competitive on breaking, compared to Marc and Dovi.
“Unfortunately I lose a little in acceleration so that made me brake a little father to them, so I was catching them but maybe too far, so this make me take some risks in some chicanes to try to overtake Andrea, where normally I would try in the normal braking. So yeah, it was a great battle for us three, probably I arrived too late for the first position and one lap more was enough when I overtook Marc to try the last move to Andrea, because I got a very good speed at the end. I made the fast lap in the last lap but you know, probably I arrive slightly too late.”
Today marked a significance change for Lorenzo on the Ducati. As far back as last year Lorenzo was competitive in the first half of the race before falling away. Today Lorenzo got fastest as the race went on, something he hasn’t managed in a year and a half with the Italian factory.
When asked why, Lorenzo said it was down to experience on the Ducati.
“The main thing for me is the experience I have got with this bike,” he said. “I was nine years with the Yamaha and I knew the bike perfectly so I could take profit of the bike in the best way.
“With the Ducati I needed to change completely the riding because our bike is very strong on breaking and very stable. You need to make all the lap time braking hard and very deep into the corner, you cannot carry a lot of corner speed, you cannot lean so much, we have good acceleration.
“So kind of experience and trying new things so you can change your riding style. We are also working a lot for the race. This is the difference between this year and last year I think.”