Jorge Lorenzo retires from MotoGP
One last race for the Spanish icon at Valencia this weekendThe glittering MotoGP career of Jorge Lorenzo will come to an end at Valencia this weekend, with the three-time world champion announcing his retirement ahead of his 297th Grand Prix start.
After 18 years of racing at the highest level, Lorenzo will depart the GP scene with five world championships, 152 podiums, 68 wins, 69 poles and 37 fastest laps.
Debuting on his 15th birthday on the second day of practice at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2002, Lorenzo has spent his entire adult life racing. A first Grand Prix win came just over a year later with his famous ‘Por Fuera’ move in Rio de Janeiro in 2003.
After a total of four wins in the 125cc class, ‘The Spartan’ moved to the 250cc championship and soon took back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007, his butter-smooth style perfectly suited to the intermediate class. His formidable consistency saw him take 29 podium finishes in three years, including 17 wins and earned him a factory seat in the MotoGP class for Yamaha.
Lorenzo’s nine-year collaboration with Yamaha in MotoGP yielded three world titles in 2010, 2012 and 2015, as he went toe-to-toe with the likes of Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso.
Some of Lorenzo’s victories were pure genius: bolting form the start and then checking out with metronomic, millimetre-perfect precision. However, he wasn’t afraid of a scrap either. See below for a prime example:
In 2017, Lorenzo made a sensational defection to Ducati and, after a difficult initiation, he won three races in 2018 as his old flair returned.
He then made an equally headline-grabbing switch to Honda in 2019 as he set his sights on becoming the first rider to win on three different manufacturers in MotoGP.
Unfortunately, a pre-season training crash saw the Mallorca native miss the majority of testing and spend the opening races playing catch up. Despite making constant improvements aboard the Honda RC213V, a heavy crash in Assen saw Lorenzo suffer breaks to his T6 and T8 vertebrae, ruling him out of four Grands Prix and affecting him throughout his return.
Lorenzo announced his retirement at a Valencia press conference, flanked by Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta.
"I want to announce this will be my last race in MotoGP, and that at the end of this race I will retire from professional racing,” Lorenzo began.
“I was three years old when everything started. Almost 30 years of complete dedication to this sport. Everyone who has worked with me knows how much of a perfectionist I am, how much hard work and intensity I put into this.
“Being like this requires a high level of motivation, when I signed for Honda I had an incredible feeling of motivation, achieving one of the dreams of every rider: to be an official HRC factory rider.
“Unfortunately, injuries came to play an important role in my season, being unable to ride in a normal way. I started to see some light but I had this bad crash in the Montmelo test, and some weeks later that ugly one in Assen.
“The truth is from that crash, the hill became too high for me, and even if I tried, I couldn’t find the motivation and patience to be able to keep climbing it.
“You know, I love this sport, I love to ride, but above all things, I love to win. I understood, that if I’m not able to fight for something big, to fight for the title or at least to fight for victories, I cannot find the motivation to keep going especially at this stage of my career.
“I realised that my goal with Honda, at least in a short time, was not realistic. I have to say I feel very sorry for Honda, especially for Alberto, who really was the one who trusted me and gave me that opportunity.”
Jorge Lorenzo stats
- At the 2019 Japanese GP, Jorge Lorenzo made his 200th Grand Prix start in the premier class, becoming the seventh rider to reach the milestone in the class and the second Spanish rider along with Pedrosa.
- Aged 32 years and 169 days old on race day at Motegi in 2019, Lorenzo became the youngest rider to reach the milestone of 200 premier class starts, taking the record from Pedrosa who was 32 years and 170 days old at the 2018 Qatar GP.
- Lorenzo (47) is then the second Spanish rider with the most GP wins in the premier class behind Marquez (55).
- Lorenzo (20 years 345 days old) is the third-youngest rider to win in three Grand Prix solo classes behind Marc Marquez (20 years 63 days old) and Pedrosa (20 years 227 days old).
- In addition, at 20 years 345 days old, Lorenzo sits in sixth place on the list of the youngest riders to win in the premier class, behind Randy Mamola (20 years 239 days old).
- Lorenzo (18 years 326 days old) is the fourth-youngest rider to win in the intermediate category in Spain, 2006, on his way to becoming the second-youngest rider to clinch the intermediate class title (19 years and 178 days old) behind Pedrosa (19 years and 18 days old).
- Lorenzo is the youngest rider to start a GP race, aged 15 years and 1 day old in Jerez back in 2002.
- With five world titles (2 x 250cc, 3 x MotoGP), Lorenzo is the third Spanish rider with the most Championship wins in the history of Grand Prix Racing behind Marquez (8) and Angel Nieto (12+1).
- Since 2008, Lorenzo has been runner-up on three occasions (2009, 2011, 2013) and finished inside the top three on eight occasions (from 2009 to 2016), while his best was in 2010 when he won the MotoGP title with 383 points (nine wins, 16 podiums and seven pole positions).
- In 2010, Lorenzo became the second Spanish rider to clinch a premier class world title after Alex Criville (1999/500cc).
- At Mugello, 2018, Lorenzo became the second rider in the history of Grand Prix racing to win on both Yamaha and Ducati machinery, along with Loris Capirossi.
- Lorenzo took 24 races to win with Ducati. Only two riders took fewer races to stand on the top step of the podium with the Bologna factory: Capirossi (6) races and Stoner (1).
- Lorenzo’s win at Mugello/2018 was the 25th time of his 47 wins in the premier class that he had won after leading across the line on every lap, the 5th time at Mugello (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018).
- In Barcelona, 2018, Lorenzo became the fourth rider to reach the milestone of 150 podium finishes in Grand Prix racing along with Valentino Rossi, Giacomo Agostini and Pedrosa. He was the second Spanish rider to do so.
- Austria 2018 was Lorenzo’s first win at the Red Bull Ring, which is the 17th different circuit in which he has won at least once in the premier class.
- Lorenzo’s win in Austria 2018 was the 29th time of his 47 wins in the premier class that he had not won starting from pole position.
- In Barcelona 2018, Lorenzo became the eighth rider to qualify on pole position with bikes from two different manufacturers in the MotoGP™ class since 2002. Others to achieve this are Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Stoner, Max Biaggi, Sete Gibernau and Aleix Espargaro.
- In 2015, Lorenzo became just the third rider to clinch a premier class title in the final race of the year with points deficit leading into it, along with Wayne Rainey (1992) and Nicky Hayden (2006).
Tags
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
