Repsol Honda factory rider and former MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo admitted that he is ‘much less happy’ in his current situation than when he was with Yamaha or Ducati, after qualifying in twentieth place in Aragon.

The Spaniard is in his third race pace after missing four races with a broken vertebrate. Whilst not one hundred percent fit yet, Lorenzo was expecting to be more competitive than he has been, confessing that he is struggling a lot.

“I’m struggling a lot, it’s not an easy situation,” said the 32-year-old.

“I’m much less happy in the races than my time with Yamaha when I was winning races, or last year when I was winning races with Ducati.

“A competitive rider cannot be happy finishing behind, but I’ve always been a fighter and I want to find some solutions with this bike and try my best.

“Lots of people ask me this question, and I say in my mind at this moment the possibility of giving up doesn’t appear in my mind. I have a two year contract with Honda, so for the moment I’m going to keep trying and let’s see if we can improve in these races.”

With regards to his qualifying performance, Lorenzo said that he wasn’t able to go after faster on his second run with the soft front, leaving him likely to choose the medium front tyre for the race.

“Our position isn’t fantastic but our feeling and the gap to first is better than yesterday, this is certainly a positive,” he said.

“Each session I have been able to improve, and my pace is quite constant. In qualifying we were able to go fast with the first tyre, but I wasn’t able to go any faster with the soft front. I think the medium will be the choice for the race, so we can keep improving.”