Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo has admitted his 2013 Assen crash demons returned to haunt him in today’s Valencia MotoGP when light rain robbed him of all confidence and he pitted early to change to wet tyres.

But the gamble failed to pay off with the rain drying up and the Spaniard being forced to pit with a chewed rear tyre even though he said had he stayed out, he would have probably finished in fourth. The result gave team-mate Valentino Rossi second place in the championship

“I didn’t have any confidence, I didn’t know if on the next corner there was more water than the previous lap so yes, some difficult moments, I almost crash. I was slower than the rest and this time the water did fall fast to make a good race,” said Lorenzo, speaking at Valencia.

“From the second row, the start wasn’t so bad. I try to overtake some riders in the first corner at the outside because the three in front of me it seems they want inside until Dani at the last moment went to the outside and I end up on the kerb.

“I lost a lot of speed, Marc overtook me and then in the second corner I have some touch with some riders. They key was the start and if I overtake, I could ride better. There were some places where the rain was dropping less and I could make 1’31s but not the same feeling in practice.

“When it start dropping more, I didn’t have the feeling to be as fast as the other riders. I was losing more and more time, so I decide to stop. If I had stayed on the track, I would have finished maximum third or fourth, which was not enough because Marc was already three seconds ahead.

“I couldn’t win the race so I played the last card. In this moment, if the rain was more, then probably I would win the race. Is similar to Aragon where I knew there was a lot of rain, here, I needed more luck but it was my only chance. Marquez was gone.

“I have to try to understand why this happen. Obviously, the danger of Assen has something to do with it but with this bike I just don’t feel enough grip on the rear with some water on the slicks. It can happen that one or two races happen like this so you have to be competitive.”