Last Sunday’s MotoGP race at the Circuit of Americas saw riders with Yamaha machinery suffer, when Yamaha factory riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo finished a disappointing eighth and tenth respectively. But it was perhaps it was even worse for Lorenzo when he performed an embarrassing jump-start at the beginning of the race!
“When I arrived for the start I had a lot of mosquitoes on my helmet (!) so I took a tear-off, which I never do and for sure this distracted my focus a little.
He adds “Also the lights were on red very late, more late than normal. Usually they are red before we arrive on the grid. I don’t know why, when I saw the red lights turn on, like a bull, I started to go!”
As the Spaniard thought he had the best start of his racing career, eventually he realised he made a mistake that led him to serve the inevitable ride-through penalty at the end of the opening lap, dropping him from fifth to dead last. What’s puzzling though is how the mosquitoes got into his helmet in the first place….
But to add insult into injury, his arch-rival, Marc Marquez, won this second race of the season, leaving him 44 points adrift from Marquez. Better luck next time, Lorenzo? Stay tuned to AF for the latest MotoGP ‘buzz’…sorry.
