Jorge Lorenzo backs James Toseland to bounce back in Qatar

Jorge Lorenzo reckons James Toseland will be mentally stronger as he backed the Brit to bounce back from his 125mph Sepang crash nightmare.

Spaniard is an expert in bouncing back from adversity and major setbacks after his sensational rookie MotoGP campaign in 2008 was peppered with a series of spectacular and painful crashes.

Huge high-sides in Shanghai, Catalunya and Laguna Seca left Lorenzo riding injured for large parts of the season, but he is confident Toseland will have no issues in shrugging off his 125mph Sepang spill when he returns to winter testing action in Qatar on Sunday night.

Toseland and Lorenzo will be back on track for the three-day night test starting on Sunday night and the Fiat Yamaha rider told MCN: “He has time to forget and start again.

“After my crash in Shanghai I didn’t come back to the real world until days after. Obviously you have fear and it is hard. Maybe the first day in Qatar he will need confidence, but if all is fine, by the third day he will be like always.

“I hope he’ll be fit. You need to ride and ride without stopping. Is the only one formula to get the confidence back. My situation was different because among those crashes I also had some others not so big, but they are all crashes.

“I had fear and for me it was very complicated to come back and achieve the same results that I did the start of the season.

“For James it is a little different. That’s just one crash, although it has been very hard. I hope he won’t have fear in the next test.

“Now I can joke about my crashes with my friends and I think how strong I was to recover, but you also think ‘Damn, those bikes.”

Having seen the pictures of Toseland’s Malaysia smash, Lorenzo said he was lost for words when he saw the height and considered the speed.

“Actually I had no words, I was very surprised. Not only for the height, but also for the speed. I remember when I saw for the first time my crash in China and it’s incredible when you are flying without control. It is terrible!

“You never want to think about it, because the other guy is a rider like you, and you don’t want to see him struggle, “added the double world 250GP champion.

Asked to describe the sensation of being so high and travelling at such velocity, Lorenzo said: “You are like Superman! No, it’s just a joke.

“You don’t think nothing, you think, is it a dream or a nightmare? You only want to land as soon as possible and touch all your body, check that you are fine.

“But the reality is you are flying and that flying goes on for so long, it feels eternal.”