Lorenzo admits: "I was lucky to even make Q2" at Phillip Island

Lorenzo was at sea in the tricky conditions in Australia, lapping a full 6.651s off the pace of poleman Marc Marquez on his way to a fourth row grid slot – three places ahead of Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi.

Having not made Q2 automatically, Lorenzo managed to bag the second slot behind Cal Crutchlow to make it into the pole position shootout.

The Spaniard admitted that he was fortunate that the gamble of several other riders to try intermediate tyres in the closing stages of Q1 failed, before going on to describe his struggle for confidence in Q2.

“In the Q1, the track was not ready to be on slicks or intermediates, it needed one or two more laps,” he said.

“We were lucky to stay in the Q2, because some of the riders decided to put on mixed [intermediate tyres] and they needed one or two more laps to be faster, so finally we were in Q2.

“But in the Q2, with the intermediate [it was] disaster, and with the slick even more disaster, the feeling.

“I tried, but I never felt that the tyres were ready to push, especially in the middle of the corner.

"The other riders pushed from the beginning, they were confident from the beginning, had the tyres ready from the beginning.

“Probably the bad experiences in these conditions, the crashes, the injuries, stayed too much in the head, and now the circumstances are the worst.

“The tyres are different from last year, much more different to warm up, and the electronics are helping you less. And we got the worst conditions at Phillip Island in the last 10 years.”

Lorenzo admitted that, if conditions remain similar in the race, he expects to struggle badly again – but says either a full wet track or a normal dry race will allow him to make progress.

Asked what result he expected on Sunday, the Spaniard said: “It depends on the conditions.

"If it rains [fully], we are in the middle of the classification, maybe one second, one-and-a-half from the fastest one.

“If it’s like it was in qualifying, it’s going to be a tough race, to get the feeling, the confidence. Very hard for me. But I’m going to try. If the weather improves, it will be better.”