Honda confirms Brno as Lorenzo comeback target

Repsol Honda team manager Alberto Puig has confirmed Jorge Lorenzo is aiming to return from injury at the first round after MotoGP’s summer break at Brno.

In what has been a torrid 12 months with injuries for the five-time world champion, Lorenzo sustained fractures to his T6 and T8 vertebra (between his shoulder blades) in a nasty crash during FP1 at Assen which has ruled him out of both the Dutch and German MotoGP rounds.

With the Czech Republic round hosting the end of the summer break on August 2-4, effectively giving Lorenzo five weeks of recovery, Honda boss Puig hopes the Spanish rider will return to action at Brno.

“About Jorge Lorenzo, we wish that Jorge has a good and speedy recovery and can join us in Brno,” Puig said. “The team is waiting for him.

“Surely, recovering from his injury is not an easy task, but we know that in his heart he is a champion and he will fight to be back in good shape and with renewed motivation.”

Honda called upon test rider Stefan Bradl as injury stand-in for Lorenzo last weekend in Germany and it is expected if Lorenzo is unable to recover for Brno he will be on hand again.

The Czech Republic round runs back-to-back with the Austrian round at the Red Bull Ring before a two-week break ahead of the British round at Silverstone.

Lorenzo has missed a total of six races and one pre-season test due to injury over the past year. After battling with a dislocated big toe and fractured second metatarsal from Aragon, Lorenzo sustained a heavy fall in Thailand and suffered a left wrist fracture with the injuries ruling him out of all four flyaway races at the end of the 2018 campaign.

The Repsol Honda rider then fractured his left scaphoid while pre-season training which ruled him out of the Sepang pre-season test.