Lorenzo rules out Qatar victory

The Spaniard's Yamaha has not been as quick as the dominant Hondas in winter testing, and he was a second off the pace in seventh in Monday night's final session.

"I don't feel ready at all to fight for the win," Lorenzo told the official MotoGP website. "It's going to be difficult to fight for the podium, but we are going to try."

Lorenzo said Monday's test had been a step backwards on a day when he had been desperate for a breakthrough.

"I hoped for so much after yesterday, but today we didn't improve - neither the lap times or the feeling, because the feeling has been much, much worse than yesterday," he said. "We are further [away] and the feelings are not good.

"We made a simulation of the race with the soft tyre on the rear, and from the middle of the race to the end, I was going slower and slower. So the bike set-up is not fine, so we hope to try last year's set-up on the race weekend and let's see what happens."

While Lorenzo was downcast about his prospects for the Losail race, his team-mate Ben Spies was encouraged to take third in the final test.

"It's been a good test, I'm happy with it," said the American. "We tried a few different things today and improved the bike some more.

"I was pretty confident coming here after Sepang. Hopefully we can make the bike even better before the race. Last year we saw that the M1 worked well at every track, it's Yamaha's strong point and I think it's the same this year."