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Jorge lorenzo
He began riding motorbikes at home at the tender age of three and
within months of taking to two wheels was competing in his first
minicross races. In 1995, aged eight, he won the Balearic title and
followed that up the following year by taking the Island’s minicross,
trial, minimoto and junior motocross titles...
Lorenzo graduated to road racing and national competition in 1997 and
it didn't take him long to adjust, winning the Aprilia 50cc Cup in
1998. Despite officially being too young, a special dispensation in 2000
allowed him to compete in the Spanish 125cc series at the age of 13 and
he made history the following year when competing in Europe and
becoming the youngest ever winner of a European 125cc race.
The precocious teenager, once again showing that age was no limit to a
quick rise up the ranks of motorbike racing, made his first foray onto
the world stage with Derbi at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez in 2002,
the third round of the season. He did not reach the legal age of 15
until Saturday and therefore missed the first day of practice but was
unfazed this and impressed the paddock by qualifying for the race,
cementing his position in the World Championship over the course of the
season as he got to grips with the circuits.
The young Mallorcan hit the
big time the following season, winning his first 125cc Grand Prix in
Rio de Janeiro and then going on to win three more races the following
season, finishing fourth in 2004 and taking his podium tally to nine
before making the step up the quarter-litre class and switching to Honda
machinery.
He joined Yamaha in 2008 and exploded onto the MotoGP scene with an
outstanding pole position at the opening round in Qatar, before
finishing second in the race. A second pole position and another podium
in round two proved it was no fluke, before he went on to take an
incredible third pole and a deserved maiden win at the third race in
Estoril. He returned to earth with a bump in China, when a crash in
practice saw him fracture both ankles, although he battled on to finish
fourth in the race before coming back with another podium next time
around in France.
The middle part of the season was difficult for the young Spaniard as
several more crashes left him with further injuries and battered
confidence, but he never gave up and made it back to claim two more
podiums. He finished the season in fourth position as rookie of the
year, the most successful debutante since the start of the four-stroke
era. The 2009 season witnessed Lorenzo take four wins, standing on the
podium an additional nine times and only missing out once in all 17
rounds on a front-row qualification, a remarkable show of consistency.
He was Rossi's only championship challenger in the latter half of the
season and once that chance was gone he focused on securing the number
two spot, which he duly did in Valencia.
The 2010 season saw him take up where he left off in 2009, taking the
fight to team-mate Rossi from the first race. It soon became clear that
Lorenzo was the man to beat that season, the young Mallorcan went on to
clock up an impressive nine race wins on his way to securing his first
ever MotoGP World Championship title. In doing so, he also broke the
record for the number of points earned in a single season, accumulating
383 by the last race in Valencia.
For the 2011 MotoGP Championship the then reigning World Champion
teamed with a new racing partner, 2010 MotoGP Rookie of the Year Ben
Spies. The Texan moved up from theTech3 Yamaha Team to join Yamaha's
Factory Racing outfit in the bid for glory. Lorenzo put in a spirited
fight to defend his title, recording three race wins and a total of ten
podium finishes during the season. A serious crash during round 16 at
Phillip Island brought a premature end to the Mallorcan’s season,
securing second in the final standings with 260 points.
The 2012 season proved to be Lorenzo's greatest yet. Against arguably
the toughest challengers of his career in protagonists Casey Stoner and
Dani Pedrosa he excelled from the start, taking the victory at the
opening round of the year under the floodlights at Qatar. He went on to
achieve and incredible record, taking six race wins over the season and
always finishing either in first or second place with the exception of
two DNFs. Lorenzo claimed his fourth World title, his second in the
premier class, at Phillip Island with one race remaining.
Not everything has been easy for Jorge Lorenzo who throughout his
career has gone under the knife several times because of some falls. In
2013 suffered one of the hardest moments of his career when he decided
to go racing in Assen (Netherlands) a few hours after being operated by a
broken left collarbone.Jorge Lorenzo managed to finish the race in
fifth place after enduring inhuman pain. That effort was what allowed
him to fight for the title until the last race of the season.
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