Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo led the first 11 laps of yesterday’s Austrian MotoGP round and declared it his best race to date for the Italian manufacturer but he used so much fuel in the opening burst, he was left with only 60ml at the end.

Switching to the soft tyre on the grid, Lorenzo leapt out of the traps but used up too much rear tyre in the intial burst and had to knock off his pace in order to eventually finish in fourth - passed by Dani Pedrosa in the closing stages.

“On the third lap there was the fuel alarm that told me to change mapping.  The right side of the rear tyre dropped too much. With less gasoline and less grip, I couldn’t push as I wanted. Imagine that I finish with only 60 millilitres of fuel,” said Lorenzo at the track.

“Things are going better at every race, I’m riding more convincingly and I’m able to get more out of my bike. We’re missing very little, just a couple of tenths, to be able to fight for the win and so we must be satisfied.

“I think that this was my best race of the year: I started from the front row, I led the race for 11 laps, and I finished the GP just over six seconds down on the winner. Congratulations to Dovizioso, his victory is good for Ducati.”