MOTOGP: Lorenzo - Tire dramas shouldn't happen

Jorge Lorenzo says the way his and a host of Ducati riders' MotoGP front tires "tore up" in the Czech Grand Prix should not happen.

While tire strategy shaped the outcome of the wet Brno race, including Cal Crutchlow's choice that led to his maiden MotoGP victory, issues with the soft-compound front also arose.

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Between laps five and 10, Ducati trio Andrea Iannone, Scott Redding and Andrea Dovizioso filled the top three spots, but they were all later hampered by pieces falling off the tire.

Dovizioso was the first to strike trouble, while Iannone and Redding dropped to finish eighth and 15th respectively, two spots ahead of the lapped Lorenzo.

"Seven laps before the end the front tire tore up so I had to change bike," Lorenzo said. "Maybe the setting was wrong? But this shouldn't happen. This is experience they have to take, Michelin, to try to make different enough tires that this doesn't happen again. We can have degradation, especially on the sides, but that pieces go out of the tire, it shouldn't happen.

"Michelin is working really hard, I'm conscious that they were working to improve the feeling on the front on the slick, and they got it. They also probably solved the problem on the rear with the slick, but this time it was the wet tire with which we had problems."

Lorenzo and Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi opted for the hard rear tire, and while they both lost ground early, Rossi was able to fight through to finish second.

The Spaniard's race was further complicated by confusion when he pitted to get off the damaged front tire, shaking his head walking between bikes when his crew chief Roman Forcada appeared to be questioning the call.

He completed a single lap on slicks, then pitted again for his original bike with a new front tire.

"They didn't understand because when I stopped the bike, the spot where the tire was bad was on the Tarmac," he said. "The front tire looked perfect, when they moved the bike then they understood that the front tire was like this.

"Probably that's why Ramon didn't understand why I wanted to change the bike. So I changed to slicks, the track was too wet, I just wanted to finish the lap and change again the bike.

"It was very bad luck, with this tire we couldn't finish the race, like Dovizioso and Iannone. Some [with the soft front] could, but I couldn't.

"I was in probably the fastest one in this moment, together with Cal and Rossi, who were more or less the fastest ones on track and I feel that I would be even faster, to finish in third and maybe even second."

Originally on Autosport.com