Lorenzo made a good start and was looking promising in fourth place when the crash happened. It was immediately clear that he had injured himself, a depressing realisation for a rider who has already had to cope with two broken ankles and a concussion this season. With the summer break coming before the next race however the outlook is good for the 21-year-old, who has flown home tonight for further assessment in Barcelona this week.
There was cause for celebration on the other side of the garage as Valentino Rossi won his first ever US Grand Prix, following a scintillating battle with Casey Stoner. Rossi now leads Stoner by 25 points whilst Lorenzo remains in fourth.
Jorge Lorenzo
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: DNF
I'm very sad today because I had a lot of confidence for the race after the qualifying session yesterday and, above all, after the very start of the race when I was fourth and feeling good. Then I crashed; my tyre was not up to temperature, I lost the rear and the next thing I knew I was in the gravel, with pain in my foot. It is one more crash, one more injury and it's another moment that I have to forget as soon as possible. I need to look forward. I am so sad but now I must concentrate on the fact that I have a whole month before Brno in order to be fit and to be able to race in good shape. This is my aim. I would like to congratulate to Valentino for his great victory and race today, he did a fantastic job."
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
"Unfortunately today's result is not what Jorge and the team deserved, after the progress we made in practice. We could have gone for a better result, but the main problem today was the lack of grip on the rear, which was amplified at the beginning of the race when the tyres were not yet at the optimum temperature. Now let's hope for a good rest for Jorge; we wish him a good recovery and we look forward to seeing him come back at Brno ready to fight again with the top riders."
Toseland fights hard for ninth, disappointment for Edwards
Tech 3 Yamaha rider James Toseland made a welcome return to the top ten this afternoon with a determined ride to ninth place in the American GP.
In sunny but cool conditions, the British rider made a fantastic start from the second row and found himself fourth at the first corner. But while cautiously waiting for his Michelin tyres to reach optimum working temperature, he slipped down to eighth at the end of the first lap.
Toseland moved back into sixth by lap six to engage in a long battle with Frenchman Randy de Puniet. He slipped back to seventh on lap 12 but reeled off a consistent pace in the 1.23 bracket to maintain constant pressure on de Puniet. His pace saw him get tantalisingly close to the battle for fourth place, but in the final stages of the 32-lap encounter, he lost two more places and finished ninth.
It was a disappointing race for Colin Edwards in front of his home crowd as he ended down in 14th. Sporting a special oneoff livery for his home race, the Texan briefly threatened to break into the top ten, but front-end issues prevented him from running his usual consistent pace.
The Tech 3 team now starts a deserved summer break before the world championship resumes in Brno on August 17.
James Toseland
James Toseland - Position: 9th Time: +0'43.019
"I'm pretty disappointed with that because I feel have put in a lot of effort and done my best to finish only ninth. I got a fantastic start and was fourth but unfortunately it was a tough race after that and I had to ride more defensive than I wanted to. With the harder compound tyres I knew I'd have to wait to get some temperature into them and that cost me a few places early on. Once I got into my pace in the 23s I was pretty happy because I'd hoped that would be good enough for a top six finish looking at the times from earlier in the weekend. I had a good long battle with de Puniet but our lap times were almost identical and I tried everything I could to close him down. At the end I was just trying to block people from passing me but Spies and Elias got me late on and that is a bit frustrating. On paper ninth doesn't look like a great result, and it doesn't feel like much of a reward for the effort that I have put in with my team this weekend. But I really couldn't have done anything else and I feel I got the best out of the package I had today. We'll hopefully be able to come back much stronger after the summer break and be fighting to be back in the top six again where we belong."