Jorge Lorenzo ended his tenure with Yamaha in perfect fashion, delivering the team with a sensational victory in Valencia after a dominant weekend for the Spanish rider.
The Spanish rider came into today firmly as the man to beat after a stunning display in qualifying. Lorenzo set three successive 1m29s laps of the Ricardo Tormo Circuit to smash his pre-existing pole record. His race pace in practice also suggested that, should he get a clear track at the start, he’d likely check out.
Indeed, this is exactly what happened. Lorenzo nailed his launch, and with main rival Marc Marquez having a howler of a getaway the Spaniard simply eased off into the sunset. In fact, it wasn’t until lap 28 when he began to encounter some grip issues did Lorenzo drop in the 1m32s bracket, and even then he only did so twice.
Not even worn rubber and an on-the-move Marquez could derail Lorenzo’s focus, and he crossed the line to take his 44th MotoGP victory in his 250th Grand Prix appearance. The result also bagged the Spaniard third in the world championship and helped Yamaha retain their teams’ title.
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“It has been an incredible weekend with a perfect first few laps, the pole position, the fastest lap, and the victory. I arrived here in MotoGP at 20 years old, taking my first pole position on my first race. After almost ten years I leave with a pole position and a victory, I think I couldn‘t have given Yamaha a better present than this for their support and their hard work during these years,” Lorenzo said.
“We always had a competitive and winning bike. Now we will enjoy and celebrate these memories. Tonight at the party I will enjoy the last moments with my team. During the race you spend 45 minutes completely focused on what you are doing to dominate this bike, so when you cross the line you aren‘t very emotional yet and you don‘t think too much, because you need to recover. After two or three minutes I started remembering the best moments in my career and also the hard moments and in parc fermé it was very emotional with my team.
“For sure I will throw one of my biggest and craziest parties today because it‘s a good day. We have to enjoy all of these experiences and especially this last moment with Yamaha.”
Lorenzo will make a highly publicised move to the factory Ducati team next season, where he will be aiming to become only the sixth rider in Grand Prix history to win the premier class title with different manufacturers. The Spaniard will get his first taste of the Desmosedici GP17 on Tuesday in the first of two days of pre-season testing in Valencia.
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