MotoGP: Brake failure ends Lorenzo’s chances

Jorge Lorenzo’s chances of taking his debut win on the Ducati twelve months after first making his debut on it were destroyed at Qatar when he was lucky to walk away from a crash out of his control. Tumbling from the race after struggling in the early stages, his exercise in damage control didn’t pan out the way he was hoping.

“I could feel the front brake lever getting closer and closer to my fingers, and I needed to try and use less front brake and more rear to try and delay a problem that was getting worse lap by lap. Then I arrived into turn four, had no brakes at all, and was going very fast towards the wall, so I jumped off the bike to avoid hitting it.

Speaking to MCN after the race, Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi was quick to point out that the blame wasn’t the squad’s fault – but says they’ve still to get to the bottom of what could have been a disaster for team and rider.

“We’re investigating the problem with Brembo, but we’re not sure of the cause yet. But it wasn’t a problem that was caused by a mistake by someone, but instead a technical problem that we have to investigate with them.”

However, that’s little comfort for Lorenzo, who admitted afterwards that a successful pre-season of testing and more experience gained on the bike, he felt like he lost the chance to take his first win for the Italian marque.

“Everything was possible in the race because everyone was going at the same pace. They weren’t faster than me at the beginning but they were getting slower and slower as I was getting faster and faster. For the first time with the Ducati, I felt like I could have a better second half of the race than a first half, but I couldn’t prove it. I passed Miller easily, I was closing on the front group, and I was getting more and more comfortable.”