Jorge Lorenzo may have lost the race and 2012 MotoGP World Championship lead to Casey Stoner on Sunday at𝐆 Estoril, but the Yamaha star felt he'd ♏done better than expected.

Starting fourth on the grid, Lo♍renzo exited the first turn second to Stoner - but had fried his clutch, helping Stoner build an early advantage before the slipping stopped.

Lorenzo then closed to within a few tenths of the Honda rider, but couldn't make a pass. Stoner pulled away in the closing laps to win b💧y 1.4sec.

"I'm happy w🥀ith this second position because I was expecting to fight for third or fourth and not the victory," said Lo♍renzo. "The bike improved a lot from the practices so it was possible.

"I had two problems, at 𒉰the start I used a lot of clutch and burnt it so for two or three laps it was burning and I lost a lot of distance from Casey. Also at thꦇe end Casey was very strong.

"[Apart from] t𓂃his everything was working well and I made ꦬa fastest lap, which is not very common for me.

"We are just one point behind Casey, 📖hopefully we can improve something on the bike tomorrow and be in front again," he added, referring to Monday's test at the Estoril circuit.

"Jorge did a really great job and pushed really hard. He never gave Casey room to breathe and he couldn't do more than that. T💝his is the right attitude to get the title," said team director Massimo Meregalli.

Roun🔯d four of the championship will be held at Le Ma𒁏ns from May 18-20