Jorge Lorenzo reveals how he broke his wrist

Jorge Lorenzo has explained how a “very stupid crash” caused him to fracture his wrist again, at Repsol Honda’s 2019 season launch.

Lorenzo broke the scaphoid in his left wrist while training in Italy and, after surgery on Monday, has been ruled out of the Sepang test on February 6-8.

While MotoGP doctor Xavier Mir stated that the break was not technically related to the wrist fracture he sustained last year, Lorenzo revealed that it still played a part.

“(It) was my first day riding the bike, riding dirt-track in some Italian track,” said the Spaniard at Repsol Honda’s 2019 season launch in Madrid.

“One mistake I did was not to check properly the track, and in some zones of the track was like some bad mud, big mud, that was difficult to see.

“The surface (looked) perfect, was dry, but instead was this mud. And when I enter this zone, the front (tyre) closed, and I have a very stupid crash.

“Unfortunately, my wrist was not completely healed from the Thailand crash, so didn’t have the perfect mobility, and for sure this affect a little bit the pressure with the scaphoid, and the scaphoid was broken.”

Lorenzo, who has joined Marc Marquez at the factory Honda team having raced for Ducati for the last two years, is confident he will make the second full test of the calendar year in Qatar (February 23-25), but will not be fully fit for either that or the opening race of the season.

“Obviously the perfect solution would be to be able to ride and test in Sepang, but understanding all the situation and the lack of days from here to Sepang, we decide I will wait 34 days for the Qatar test,” he explained.

“I don’t think I will be 100 percent, probably will be 80 to 85 percent (in the test), to be 90 95 percent in Qatar race.

“Obviously I didn’t expect to crash, was a big pity because was a very unlucky crash and situation, but now we have this situation and we have to work as good as possible with the physios, with the machines, with all the process of recuperation, and we have our plan to make it.

“I think on Friday I will start to move a little bit the wrist and little by little we will recover well the injury.”

The team has confirmed that test rider Stefan Bradl will step in for Lorenzo in Sepang.

Repsol Honda, meanwhile, unveiled a largely unchanged livery for 2019, the 25th year of the partnership between the Japanese manufacturer and Spanish oil giant.

In attendance were Mick Doohan and Alex Criville, who were the first to ride with the orange and red colours for the factory Honda team.

MotoGP track action resumes with the Sepang shakedown test on February 1-3.