Jorge Lorenzo fails to defend his MotoGP World Championship title in 2011
The Spanish MotoGP rider, Jorge Lorenzo of Yamaha Factory Racing team was left with futile end to his 2012 premier class season.
While running close to the 2011 world champion Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda), he faced a drastic crash that sidelined him for the final three events in the season.
His unfortunate time started to click when MotoGP paddock shifted to Philip Island, Australia. Stoner was close to grab the season title at his home ground and Lorenzo had the last chance to drag him away from being the world champion.
However, the Spanish rider charged himself for the crucial event at the Australian soil. The Yamaha team had positive expectations from the event but they were left unfulfilled.
He suffered a crash during the warm up lap and lost the tip of his finger on left hand, while damaging other fingers too. The rider was immediately declared unfit for the event, causing clean sweep to his 2011 title challenge.
Stoner cautiously raced at Philip Island and took the championship title for 2011. His injury cost him the championship. He underwent surgery to reconstruct his finger. Lorenzo was sidelined for the last two rounds of the season due at Sepang and Valencia.
After the he had to wait for the long recovery time to be fit for the racing, that caused him to miss the post race test session at Valencia. It was an important outing for him to assess the 1000cc Yamaha YZR-M1.
Lorenzo stood strong through the season, though he could not take frequent wins as compared to his Aussie rival, but he claimed several podium positions in the season.
Since the season inaugural event at Losail circuit, Qatar, he finished second to ensure a tough battle for season title.
He took his season’s first win at his home ground Jerez, Spain. He took the advantage of the wet race conditions that victimised several riders in the race. Stoner, the winning rival was hit by Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) and retired him from the race.
Since the first Spanish event of the season, Lorenzo took the lead in the 2011 championship. Apparently, it seemed that he will once again clinch the title for the consecutive second time after 2010.
In the third round at Mugello, he again lost the victory to his compatriot and bitter rival, Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda. Stoner still firmed a threat to the former world champion by taking third position behind Lorenzo.
The fourth season round was total disaster in terms of successive results. The Spaniard rider qualified for fifth place on the grid and finished the event in the fourth place at the Le Mans event.
Coming back to his home ground at Catalunya, Spain, he took a second place finish in the event while starting off from first row.
The Aussie reclaimed his dominancy in the season and took back the championship lead from his Lorenzo. Since then the Spaniard was in chase to hunt down the Australian Kangaroo aboard Honda RC212V.
Following two rounds in the season at Silverstone and TT Assen, he could not stand on the podium. The British Grand Prix was held under rain that crashed Lorenzo from a strong chase on Repsol Honda duo, Stoner and Andréa Dovizioso. It was his first ‘did
not finish’ status in the season.
While in the Dutch event, he fairly qualified for a fourth place while ending up in sixth position. The next two wins were taken at Mugello and San Marino circuits in Italy.
While in Aragon and Japan, he collected his last couple of podiums before being sidelined for the rest of the season.
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