Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo crashed out of the season-opening Qatar MotoGP round yesterday and had blamed a problem with the front brakes.

The Spaniard got off to a bad start and says the issues began on lap two and then progressively got worse until it was safer for him to bail out than stay on the bike.

"I had a lot of problems and my crash was the result of a problem with the front brakes. Already on lap two I realised that something wasn’t right and I tried to manage the situation, but the problem was getting worse," said Lorenzo.

"I thought it was an overheating problem, but when I was about to catch Iannone I wasn’t able to stop the bike and I tipped myself off to avoid worse damage.

"Now we have to understand what exactly happened to prevent the same problem from repeating itself in the future. It’s a pity because I was lapping with good times and I think I could have got closer to the leading group.”