Thursday, August 11, 2011

Lorenzo


Rossi and Lorenzo set for Pacific Showdown
Jorge Lorenzo Guerrero (Spanish pronunciation; born May 4, 1987 in Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain), is a Spanish professional motorcycle road racer. He is the 2006 and 2007 250cc World Champion, and the 2010 MotoGP World Champion. He is currently a rider in the MotoGP Class, on the Yamaha Factory Team.
Lorenzo made his championship debut on his fifteenth birthday, on the second qualifying day for the 2002 125cc Spanish Grand Prix, after having to miss Friday practice as he was not old enough to race. Lorenzo dominated the 2007 250cc World Championship. His nine pole positions led to nine victories in 2007, and all his 2006 poles bar Motegi led to victories in 2006.Jorge's victory at Misano in 2007 was his 16th in the 250cc class, making him the most successful Spanish rider of all time in the 250cc GP class – with one more victory than Dani Pedrosa and Sito Pon
Lorenzo made a great start to his MotoGP career, finishing 2nd after qualifying on pole for the Qatar night race. He followed this up with pole at the second round in Jerez, Spain and 3rd Position, and pole in round 3 at Estoril, Portugal. He converted this pole into a victory, his maiden win in the Premier Class. In doing so, he became the youngest rider in MotoGP to finish on the podium in his first three races,taking the record from compatriot (and bitter rival) Dani Pedrosa by a single day.
By this stage of the Championship, Lorenzo was in joint first place with Pedrosa, but on May 1, 2008 Lorenzo was thrown from his bike during practice for the MotoGP Grand Prix of China. Lorenzo suffered a chipped bone and snapped ligament in his left ankle, and a fractured bone in his right. He was still able to finish the race in 4th place. Two weeks later at Le Mans, Lorenzo suffered two accidents in the practice sessions but managed to post a 2nd place result. In the following race in Italy he crashed during the race after qualifying seventh on the grid,The next week at Catalunya he experienced his fifth crash in four meetings, the practice session accident forcing him to miss the race.
At both Donington Park and Assen, he was observed to be riding more conservatively after a series of injuries, but moved up the order in the later part of the race to finish 6th in each case. He has commented that he is stronger in the latter parts of races, preferring the bike when it is low on fuel. In the next meeting at Sachsenring, however, Lorenzo crashed out of the race during very wet conditions. Lorenzo suffered yet more injuries to his feet at the USGP at Laguna Seca on July 20, when he experienced his seventh crash in only three months. During the first lap a spectacular highside left Lorenzo with a sore right foot (or ankle) and three broken bones in his left foot, specifically the third, fourth and fifth metatarsals. At Misano, Lorenzo clinched 2nd place. Indianapolis saw him on the podium again this time in third position. He eventually finished the season in 4th position.
In 2009, Lorenzo stayed with Yamaha. His season started strongly, with two wins out of four races: in Japan and France.As a consequence of a crash in qualifying at the Laguna Seca round, Lorenzo suffered a small fracture in the head of the fourth metatarsal in his right foot, contusions to the bones in both ankles and damage to his collarbone in his right shoulder.Two crashes later in the season, during the rain hit British Grand Prix and at Brno hampered his title bid, as he was 50 points behind championship leader Valentino Rossi prompting Lorenzo to claim his chances of winning the title have gone. He won at Indianapolis, while both Rossi and Pedrosa crashed, reducing Lorenzo's gap to Rossi to 25 points. His first corner crash with Nicky Hayden in Australia was a blow to his title chances and Rossi clinched the title with a third place finish in Malaysia.
On 25 August 2009, Lorenzo ended speculation surrounding a possible move to Honda or Ducati by signing a contract to race with Yamaha in the 2010 MotoGP Championship. Ducati reputedly offered him a 15 million dollar contract to take Nicky Hayden's position.

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