Lorenzo withdraws from Japanese MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo will miss this weekend’s Japanese MotoGP after trying his injured left wrist in opening practice at Motegi.

The Ducati star, who only discovered yesterday that the fracture caused by the technical problem in Thailand is worse than thought, took to the track at the start of FP1 but returned to the pits without setting a lap time.

A shake of the head to team manager Davide Tardozzi was followed by Lorenzo leaving the garage and he has now been officially announced as withdrawing from the rest of the event:

A quick return for @lorenzo99 

Is that the end of his #JapaneseGP already?  pic.twitter.com/0Hlamqjn8Q

— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 19, 2018

 

 

 

 

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After all my efforts to recover as fast as posible for Japan, this morning I tried to ride but from the first moment I felt this would be imposible. I’m very sad, specially because I think without the es I could arrive in one of my favourites tracks at my best with the Ducati to try to archive more victories for the team. The only thing I can do now is be patient and wait the time to do it’s work. Thanks for all your support. #JL99  #JapaneseGP

A post shared by Jorge Lorenzo (@jorgelorenzo99) on Oct 18, 2018 at 11:29pm PDT

Lorenzo looks set to lose fifth in the world championship this weekend – with Cal Crutchlow, Danilo Petrucci and Johann Zarco all within seven points of the triple MotoGP champion, who has just one week to recover before the Australian Grand Prix.

Had Lorenzo known how serious the wrist fracture was, it seems likely he would have opted for surgery after Buriram. Instead, Phillip Island is now also in doubt.