"Slower than ever" Lorenzo considered retiring from Assen race

Lorenzo had a miserable time of it at Assen, tumbling down the order to 19th place in the first part of the race before it was red-flagged for heavy rain.

The Spaniard would wind up salvaging 10th after the restart as riders ahead of him crashed out en masse.

"I was more competitive [after the restart] - but it was not very difficult to be more competitive than the first race," Lorenzo conceded.

"Because I was... probably slower than ever. Especially when all the big water came, I was slower and slower. I was not safe, I did not see well - and to not crash I had to slow down.

"I was last one, very far from the next riders even. I thought to enter the pits because I was P19 and I wouldn't get any points. And I was taking risks.

"I even thought to stop in the pits. But luckily I keep on the track, they stop the race so I could restart again.

"In the second race, with the soft rear tyre and less water on the track, I was better, but still, one of the slowest riders - or the slowest one."

Lorenzo insisted, however, that he was going as fast as he could in the early stages of the race, even though his pace was obviously lacking.

"It's not that I was just going quiet, I was pushing, pushing on the braking, pushing in the middle of the corner, pushing on the acceleration.

"But the bike was giving me warnings - 'if you push more, you'll crash'. So even if I was slow, I wasn't safe."

Front tyre woes

Lorenzo attributed his Assen struggles to a lack of feeling with the front tyre, which he believes affected him more than any other rider on the grid.

He explained: "I think it's maybe the front - when I don't feel the front, I feel that the front doesn't have grip on braking and in the middle of the corner, with the style I have, with the position of my body on the bike, I just suffer more than the other riders and I'm not able to suddenly change my riding.

"Especially to gain the time on braking, on entry into corners - normally I sacrifice a bit the entry into corners to have corner speed, but if you don't have grip in the front, you cannot gain, but you lose on braking. So that's the only way.

"When I have front feeling, like in Motegi [2015], for example, in the rain, I've been able to be the fastest one.

"But when I don't have front grip, I can be the last one. I suffer more than the others and that's what happened today."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont