Saturday, 29 June 2013

Jorge Lorenzo has passed a second medical test at Assen on Saturday, giving him the green light to start the Iveco TT Assen. The reigning champion, who broke his left collarbone on Thursday, will set off from 12th on the grid.

Lorenzo suffered the injury in a crash during the wet Free Practice 2, before being operated on in Barcelona during the early hours of Friday morning. He then returned to The Netherlands on Friday afternoon and is able to start the race from 12th position courtesy of his leading combined practice time which submitted him directly to Q2.

"Well, finally we are here, to race," Lorenzo says. "In the first laps of the warm up I felt a lot of pain, especially when the bike accelerated and I had to hold it strongly. I thought of either giving up or continuing but luckily I continued and the pain decreased as I did more laps. I've grown accustomed to molding my body to the bike to avoid pain. The problem will be in the race when I have to overtake on the brakes because I can’t force the shoulder a lot. I have a good rhythm and I feel much better on the turns, but obviously worse than on Thursday. Anyway, I have decided to race.

"Just finishing the race would be a small victory for me but I would like to take at least five points or more, to take less would not be much after suffering a lot. At the end of the race we'll see if it was worth it. I'm proud of myself for the effort in these two difficult days after the crash and also of my team for their support."

The 2013 Iveco TT Assen will begin at 3pm local time (GMT +2).