MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo to Miss Czech Republic and Austrian Rounds

In a season of woes and misfortune, another page has been written in the diary of disappointment in Jorge Lorenzo’s year.

The Repsol Honda rider has been plagued by injury throughout the season. He suffered a crash in January while training on a Motocross bike, breaking his already injured (broken from a crash in Thailand – 2018) scaphoid in the process. 

The injuries would continue, Lorenzo suffering a broken rib after suffering a highside from his Repsol Honda during FP3 in Qatar. 

On top of the injuries. Lorenzo has been struggling to adapt to the Honda bike after spending two seasons on Ducati. Progress had been slow but he appeared to make a breakthrough at the Catalan Grand Prix before crashing out of the race on lap 2. Taking with him Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales.

The worst was yet to come. Two weeks later at the TT Circuit Assen, Lorenzo crashing heavily through the gravel trap through the fast turn 8 right hand corner. Fracturing both his T6 and T8 vertebrae. He returned home to begin recovery, missing the German Grand Prix. 

“Having spent the summer break working on his recovery, Lorenzo’s condition has improved but he is still in some pain and his movement on a bike remains restricted”

Lorenzo and the team had targeted a return for next weekends (August 2nd-4th) Czech Republic Grand Prix at Brno. The recovery period has proved to be longer than anticipated. Lorenzo and the Repsol Honda team agreeing not to risk any further injury, have opted to allow Lorenzo further recovery time by missing the Czech and Austrian rounds. A statement from the team said: “having spent the summer break working on his recovery, Lorenzo’s condition has improved but he is still in some pain and his movement on a bike remains restricted”. The target for Lorenzo is to return for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on the 23rd-25th of August.

Stefan Bradl will once again stand in for the injured Lorenzo. The German giving a solid performance at his home round at the Sachsenring before the summer break. Bradl scoring the best result of the season for Lorenzo’s bike, finishing 10th.

Lorenzo has had his worst start to a season in the MotoGP class, scoring 19 points from the seven rounds he has competed in. The only season that he scored less points after the first seven races was his first full season of Grand Prix racing in 2003. Racing for Derbi in the 125cc class, he had only accumulated 11 points.

When the Spaniard returns from injury and lines up on the grid for the British Grand Prix. It will be 377 days since his last top 10 finish, when he won the Austrian Grand Prix ahead of Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso. A stat that the 5x World Champion will be looking to amend.