A "very disappointed" Jorge Lorenzo was left to pick through the bones of a disastrous Grand Pr🦂ix of Argentina, and feels that an uncharacteristic first corner fall cost him the chance of challenging for the top si♐x.

Starting from 16th after a damp qualifying, his worst grid position since August 2008, Lorenzo launched well but tagged the rear-wheel of An🤡drea Iannone's Suzuki at the first turn, causing him to crash out in spectacular style.

After going down at the same corner (later in the race) a year ago, Loren🅺zo now has more than a week to contemplate a weekend when h𝄹e was outside the top ten in each free practice session, as well as morning warm-up.

"Luckily I'm OK," he 🌳said. "Because [after I fell] Baz almost touched me and almost ran over me, and I was lucky about that, so it was a nasty crash. So it was a long time ago, maybe Australia 2009 that I don't make it past the first corner [it was Assen 2012, thanks @RyanJShaw94], so very disappointed.

"Disappointed, because I needed more than ever to find th🃏e kilometers and the laps to keep the improvement❀ we made during the weekend with the position of the bike, with the way of riding using more the rear brake to stop the bike. And in the warm up lap I felt very, very good.

"So a goo💝d start, but in the first corner, I decided to go to the inside, therওe was a lot of bikes there, and someway somehow, I found the rear wheel of Iannone very soon, and I touched him just a little bit, and the bike was going into the other side and I crashed.

"Very disappointed. A bad moment, because still ten, twelve days before I can get on the bike again, and I would like to go tomorrow. It's difficult, but at least I'm n💎ot injure𒀰d, and we found a good way to be more competitive in the future."

Able to watch the race from ꧙his pit box, Lorenzo believes his consistency - brought about by a change to the height of his seat on Saturday - would have carried him to a top six finish.

"I think Andrea [Dovizioso] had a l൲ot of problems this weekend, and I could have improved my pace on the race, so probably with a good start and no problems on the first lap, I could fight with Bautista for fourth, fifth, with the group behind. I think that was my plaꦅce today, with the pace I imagine I could do.

"Every time I ride differently, more like you have to ride the Ducat♕i, using the rear brake to stop, I improve so much in the braking.

"The warm-up was OK, I was very constant, not especially fast in the warm up just in one lap, but very constant, and stillꦬ adapting to the bike. I expected in the race to improve three tenths or half a second. But this happened and my race was over.

"Let's say my championship will start in Austin. I hope. Because Qatar was൩ a disaster, I was 🦋lucky to finish eleventh, because of a lot of crashes. And here, my race didn't exist. So in Austin we will start the championship."