Lorenzo: My “black period” is over, but Ducati “in another world”

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo said finishing third in the Austrian Grand Prix behind the two factory Ducatis “almost felt like a victory”.

Along with teammate Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo battled hard with the Ducatis in the opening stages but believes that third place was the best he could achieve after a difficult run of races.

“Obviously when you have won so many races like me, finishing in third place is not like a victory,” he said. “But we can feel this third place almost like a victory because Ducati was almost in another world during the test, the weekend and the second part of the race.

“Finishing third, just 2s from the winner, it’s a great result and we’re very satisfied. I’m very happy, even with the rear tyre moving a lot in the last part of the race.

“We recovered some points to Marc [Marquez], which is important, and anything can happen, as we saw when Marc crashed yesterday and he almost got seriously injured. You need to be focused and have some luck in this championship.”

“Not many points and a lot of bad feeling”

When asked about his recent form, Lorenzo replied: “A black period, no? The last three races, a black period. Not so many points and a lot of bad feeling.

“Finally a good weekend, good qualifying, good race. At the beginning Iannone was not as fast I expected, but instead of going slower he got faster and faster with the soft tyres.

“So that was a big surprise. We were not so far as we expected, that is a good sign, because this track was better for them."