Jorge Lorenzo suffered a costly replay of two problems that have previously afflicted his new Repsol Honda team-mate Marc Marquez, both of them coming at once.
Firstly, having got through from Q1 to Q2, the chain jumped the sprocket as he was about to start his second timed lap. The same thing happened to Marquez in free practice in Argentina a fortnight ago.
This left Lorenzo to repeat Marquez’s sprint back to his pit down the long CotA pit lane. Marquez did the same in 2015, after he had a bike failure in qualifying.
Back then the youngster managed to claim pole position. Lorenzo’s run was slower, revealing that he is still recovering from injuries, and though he went out again, by the end he qualified just eleventh.
