Lorenzo delighted with 'risky' second

The Spaniard, who is still recovering from a hand injury sustained in testing, ran fourth for much of the race. But he came on strong in the closing stages to produce two forceful passing manouvres on Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso to take an unexpected podium and reduce the points deficit he might have faced to title rival, team-mate and race winner Valentino Rossi.

"I'm very pleased with this second position," he said. "I was thinking about being quiet and not taking so many risks. But when I have high adrenaline, for me it's impossible to be quiet - I have to be at the maximum, I have to ride hard.

"And this is what I did today in the last laps, sliding and having fun. But I was tired and it was risky, so in the end I finished second. It's fantastic for us.

"To be honest this weekend we've had so many problems, especially with rear grip, so I didn't feel comfortable at the beginning of the race," he added. "Dani [Pedrosa], Andrea and Nicky were faster than me. I was patient, and as the laps went on and I had less and less fuel, for me it was easier to ride, and at the end I could be much faster and pass Nicky and Andrea."

The 22-year-old added that he was pleased to have a result in the bag as uses the break between Qatar and Motegi to concentrate on recovering from his injury.

"These two weeks are important for the recovery," he said. "The hand has been better than we expected, but it's not 100 per cent. Now in these two weeks I can get back to training harder."