Jorge Lorenzo delighted with second in Indianapolis MotoGP race given weekend's troubles

The MotoGP championship leader looked like he would be hard pressed to make it into the top five on the grid before a set-up change transformed his Yamaha and allowed him to jump to the outside of the front row.

Lorenzo could not match Dani Pedrosa and Ben Spies in the opening laps of the race, but was able to claim second after his team-mate retired with an engine failure.

"It was a really difficult weekend, maybe the most difficult of the season," said Lorenzo. "So for us to improve the bike so much in qualifying and have the possibility to fight with Dani today was fantastic.

"The pity was maybe we couldn't use the hard tyre with good performance. The soft one from the middle of the race to the end was dropping a lot so I had to reduce my pace."

Team boss Wilco Zeelenberg was thrilled that Lorenzo had manage to salvage a second place and said he was confident that Indianapolis would prove to be an anomaly.

"We're very happy with this second place. It was a very difficult weekend for us, although Saturday qualifying was a big step forward," said Zeelenberg.

"Second behind Dani was a great result and a good step to the next race.

"We hope we'll struggle less on the Friday at Brno which should be a better track for us."