IN
THE
WIND
P38
More Pain For Jorge Lorenzo
J
orge Lorenzo's difficult start
to his first year on the fac-
tory Repsol Honda got a good
deal worse at Assen, after a
high-speed crash in the first
practice session left him with
two fractures in his spine, and
yet another major knock to his
confidence.
He was already badly shaken
after three crashes in two weeks.
In Catalunya he fell in the race,
taking out three other front-run-
ners; then he had a heavy crash
that cut his time short in official
post-race tests.
At Assen, the triple premier-
class champion was getting up
to speed but still down in 18th
place when he fell at the very
fast Turn 7, at the end of the so-
called back straight. He walked
away, only to be put into an
ambulance and eventually taken
to the hospital, where a fracture
in his T6 vertebra was revealed.
Soon afterwards he returned
to Spain for treatment, where a
microscopic "trabecular" fracture
was found in his T8.
Lorenzo escaped damage to
the spinal cord and the nervous
system, but would have to spend
"three or four weeks" wearing a
body brace. As well as the Dutch
TT, Lorenzo will also miss next
weekend's German GP.
"We hope he will be back after
the summer break at Brno," said
HRC team boss Alberto Puig,
who hinted that the Assen crash
had aggravated injuries from the
post-Catalunya GP tests after the
race there a fortnight ago.
At Barcelona, "he had pain in
the same area as in the Assen
crash," he said.
Asked for details about the
Assen crash, Puig said he had
not fully examined the data, but
that "normally a crash is through
human error. I think he went into
the corner a bit faster, or maybe
at a different angle."
After starting the year by miss-
ing the first test after breaking a
bone in his left wrist in a training
fall, Lorenzo has struggled in
the early races as teammate to
rampant championship leader
Marc Marquez.
A fortnight ago in Catalunya,
after a visit to HRC headquarters
in Japan, further changes to the
bike seemed to have been a
step forward. He qualified 10th
and made a blinding start, only
to crash on the second lap.
Lorenzo's Assen record
includes race wins in 125, 250
and MotoGP, and a heroic feat in
2013, when he broke his collar-
bone on the first day of practice,
flew home for surgical repair,
then returned to race to fifth
place.
Michael Scott
Nothing seems to be going right for Jorge Lorenzo
at the moment. PHOTO: GOLD & GOOSE
