LORENZO

Yamaha Factory Racing rider Jorge Lorenzo wrapped up a season of domination last Sunday with second on the podium in the Grand Prix of Australia to claim his second MotoGP World Championship title, becoming Spain’s first ever double premier-class Grand Prix Champion.

Starting from second on the grid, Lorenzo took the hole shot from the start line, but dropped to third initially behind championship rival Dani Pedrosa and race leader Casey Stoner. As the leading pack ran through turn four Pedrosa crashed out, leaving Stoner and Lorenzo to break away.

Lorenzo delivered a textbook race of inch perfect laps, maintaining the gap to Cal Crutchlow chasing in third, eventually crossing the line to claim the 2012 MotoGP Rider’s title.

The win puts Lorenzo on 350 points, 43 clear of Pedrosa going into the final round. Over the season the World Champion amassed an impressive six race wins and 10 second place finishes to secure the title. He now heads to his home race in Valencia free from the pressure to win and happy to deliver one last race of the year in front of his home crowd.

“What a day! I’m very happy, it was easier than I expected because Dani made a mistake in a corner and crashed. I wanted to keep with Casey but he was so strong,” Lorenzo said after the race.

“Today all I had to do was finish the race and I have become World Champion for the second time. It’s such a sweet feeling!”

“I want to thank all the team, Yamaha, my family, my friends, sponsors and fans who support me. Today is an amazing moment. We’ve been very patient, very concentrated and finally the World title arrives!” Lorenzo added.

Yamaha Factory Racing Team manager Wilco Zeelenberg meanwhile said, “It was a very exciting start to the Phillip Island race, we knew we had to beat Dani and of course he knew as well so he pushed really hard in the beginning.

In the end it was a bit too hard. We knew we had good pace and think we maybe could have beaten him anyway on consistency. From that point Jorge only had to bring it home. He’s had a great season of wins or second places and now the world Championship title!”