Former MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo had another tough weekend in France but this time a setup error left him with not enough feeling at the front of the YZR-M1 meant he finished seven seconds behind a slowing Marc Marquez and four seconds behind team-mate Valentino Rossi.

The Spaniard tried a setting in morning warm-up which he liked but it didn’t work out in the race. Lorenzo also got tangled up in the mid-pack scrap through the first set of corners, which also involved Dani Pedrosa, and he lost his rhythm, having to settle for sixth.

“It was a pity not to be in the first row because that should give us less problems. In the first lap, I make a good start but I stay on the inside of the first corner and then there were a lot of riders there and I couldn’t overtake any position,” said Lorenzo.

“I even lose one position so in eighth, you start to ride a little more nervous, a little more tense, you can’t ride with the same smoothness as in practice and the setting that I thought was better in warm-up was worse in the front especially.

“I try to have the same feeling as all through practice but in general I rode much worse so that’s why we couldn’t do a better result. Everything together makes it more difficult than like last year, the tyre for sure is the worst thing but little by little I am trying to adapt my riding.”