Jorge Lorenzo vindicated by Argentina MotoGP race performance

The Yamaha rider crashed on the first lap of the 2014 opener in Qatar, then jumped the start of round two at Austin.

That left him 16th in the championship heading to the series' first event at Termas de Rio Hondo, where he managed to split the Hondas on the front row of the grid and lead for 16 laps before being overhauled by Marc Marquez.

"I received, from some journalists especially, too much criticism that I didn't deserve," said Lorenzo, who eventually finished third behind the second Honda of Dani Pedrosa.

"It's true that I made some mistakes, but in the last years I've done some very good races.

"We've demonstrated that even when not in our best shape we can still fight with the Hondas.

"We have to still keep pushing like we are now and when our moment arrives, we will be prepared to win some races."

Lorenzo admitted that the scale of media criticism following his Austin error - when he admitted to misjudging the start procedure when distracted by mosquitoes on his visor - had weighed on his mind during the Termas de Rio Hondo race.

"It was a really delicate race, because another mistake would have created even more criticism," he said.

"So I needed to be very concentrated, especially on the lights at the start. I was really conscious of the lights..."

The double MotoGP world champion's Argentina podium brought him up to seventh in the championship, 53 points behind Marquez, who is unbeaten so far this year.