Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo says he is ‘paying for mistakes,’ but he vows to keep battling.

Sunday’s San Marino MotoGP race winner Lorenzo (Yamaha) says he is paying for mistakes he made earlier this season as he attempts to bridge the gap to Marc Marquez (Honda) at the top of the championship.

Lorenzo, who clawed back some more ground in the title race after claiming his second successive race win at Misano and his fifth triumph of the season, is 34 points behind the Repsol Honda rookie with five rounds remaining.

The defending world champion has vowed to keep battling for race wins as he bids to retain his crown, but Lorenzo admits he faces an uphill battle to overhaul Marquez.

“Five victories is a lot to still be in second place but you know I made a mistake at Assen and also Sachsenring. It was my own fault and now I’m paying a little bit for it,” he said. “The past is the past, we cannot change it and have to look to the future. Improve the bike more and try to win the remaining grands prix.

“If we want to win the championship we have to win races. That is the only thing we can do. Marc is really strong. He’s always first or second,” he added. “So he’s a really hard rival to beat but we have to keep trying and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Lorenzo said he was ‘angry’ after encountering braking trouble during practice and qualifying with the YZR-M1, although a number of changes to the Yamaha finally bore fruit.

“Luckily we improved the bike a lot in the warm-up. Mainly we put a stronger fork for the braking. All weekend we’d struggled so much to be competitive, especially on braking,” he said. “We couldn’t stop the bike and I was angry because we changed a lot of things.

“But finally we improved the bike and I was much faster and much more confident. This gave me the motivation and condition to try to make the same strategy as the last few races, but with the difference that now I feel stronger physically.

“I made a good start. Overtook Marc and tried to push to the limit from the first corner and got my goal to go alone,” added Lorenzo. “After the big advantage at the beginning, I had to keep concentrated and not make any mistakes because Dani [Pedrosa] and Marc were really strong. Almost the same pace as me.

“So it was a very demanding race, physically and mentally.”

Results from the San Marino GP:

1. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 44m 5.522s
2. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 44m 8.901s
3. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 44m 12.890s
4. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory Racing (YZR-M1) 44m 20.584s
5. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 44m 27.877s
6. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 44m 28.121s
7. Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RC213V) 44m 36.581s
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (GP13) 44m 48.224s
9. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team (GP13) 44m 50.380s
10. Michele Pirro ITA Ignite Pramac Racing (GP13) 44m 53.340s
11. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 44m 53.533s
12. Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* 45m 8.676s
13. Aleix Espargaro ESP Power Electronics Aspar (ART CRT) 45m 13.122s
14. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* 45m 21.050s
15. Danilo Petrucci ITA Came IodaRacing Project (Suter-BMW CRT)* 45m 23.429s
16. Claudio Corti ITA NGM Forward Racing (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* 45m 35.177s
17. Randy De Puniet FRA Power Electronics Aspar (ART CRT) 45m 39.512s
18. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART CRT)* 45m 42.382s

Bryan Staring AUS Go&Fun Honda Gresini (FTR-Honda CRT) DNF
Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki CRT)* DNF
Yonny Hernandez COL Paul Bird Motorsport (ART CRT) DNF
Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (ART CRT) DNF
Andrea Iannone ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing (GP13) DNF
Lukas Pesek CZE Came IodaRacing Project (Suter-BMW CRT)* DNF

* Standard ECU.

World Championship standings after round 13 of 18:

Riders’ World Championship:
1. Marc Marquez ESP Honda (F) * 253 points
2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha (F) 219 points (-34)
3. Dani Pedrosa ESP Honda (F) 219 points (-34)
4. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha (F) 169 points (-84)
5. Cal Crutchlow GBR Yamaha (S) 146 points (-107)
6. Stefan Bradl GER Honda (S) 124 points (-129)
7. Alvaro Bautista ESP Honda (S) 112 points (-141)
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati (F) 104 points (-149)
9. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati (F) 95 points (-158)
10. Bradley Smith GBR Yamaha (S) * 71 points (-182)
11. Aleix Espargaro ESP ART (CRT) 71 points (-182)
12. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati (S) 50 points (-203)
13. Andrea Iannone ITA Ducati (S) * 41 points (-212)
14. Colin Edwards USA FTR-Kawasaki (CRT) 31 points (-222)
15. Hector Barbera ESP FTR-Kawasaki (CRT) 27 points (-226)
16. Danilo Petrucci ITA Ioda Suter-BMW (CRT) 23 points (-230)
17. Randy de Puniet FRA ART (CRT) 20 points (-233)
18. Ben Spies USA Ducati (S) 9 points (-244)
19. Claudio Corti ITA FTR-Kawasaki (CRT) * 7 points (-246)
20. Yonny Hernandez COL ART (CRT) 7 points (-246)
21. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN FTR-Kawasaki (CRT) 6 points (-247)
22. Alex de Angelis RSM Ducati (S) 5 points (-248)
23. Karel Abraham CZE ART (CRT) 5 points (-248)
24. Michael Laverty GBR PBM-ART (CRT) * 3 points (-250)
25. Bryan Staring AUS FTR-Honda (CRT) * 2 points (-251)
26. Javier del Amor ESP FTR-Kawasaki (CRT) 1 points (-252)

(F) = Factory Team
(S) = Satellite Team
(CRT) = Claiming Rule Team
* Rookie