A battered Jorge Lorenzo will soldier on in tonight’s opening round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship despite dealing with extensive back pain from a difficult Saturday at Losail.

The triple MotoGP champion crashed heavily at turn six in FP3 and then, later in Q1, he joined a number of riders in going down at turn two in tricky conditions.

Lorenzo’s time will see him start the Qatar Grand Prix from 15th on the grid, the two falls leaving him with pain in his back, arms and legs. As a result, he’s hoping to be as pain free as possible for Sunday’s race.

“I have some pain in my back and I need to rest and then see how I wake up tomorrow,” Lorenzo admitted. “It hasn’t been a great day today, very unlucky with the first crash. There were a combination of factors that made me have a very nasty crash which has created a lot of pain.

“Then in qualifying I crashed because it was too cold, it wasn’t a good day for us. It will be a race of survival, especially for me with my experience with the bike and also my pain.”

It’s been a bumpy start to his career at Repsol Honda for Lorenzo, still on the mend from a wrist injury sustained in the off-season and continuing to come to grips with the factory RC213V alongside reigning champion Marc Marquez.