Jorge Lorenzo says choosing the soft front tire compound proved costly as it disrupted his bid to claim his third straight MotoGP victory at Jerez.
Having qualified on pole, Lorenzo lost out at the start to Honda's Dani Pedrosa and then later to the Spaniard's stablemate Casey Stoner. From there he trailed Stoner for the duration of the race but was never truly able to mount an attack and finished second, less than one second behind the Australian.
Like Stoner, Lorenzo had selected the soft compound for the race – a decision he said proved wrong as it led to a reduced feel and less confidence on the bike.
"Today I knew it would be a very important decision on the grid to choose the right front tire," the Spaniard explained. "Finally, we chose the soft one: unfortunately, we were wrong and had a lot of problems during the race, I wasn't as confident as in practice.
"Without good feelings, to finish second is not so bad. We are still leading the championship and have good motivation for Estoril."