New world MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo says he feels liberated after winning a season-long battle with the powerful Repsol Honda team to claim his second premier class title.
Lorenzo clinched the world championship after rival Dani Pedrosa crashed on the second lap of Sunday’s Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island, ending a chance to catch his fellow Spaniard in the final two races of the season.
Casey Stoner powered away to win his sixth straight Australian MotoGP, with Lorenzo coming home in second place to claim the main title. The Spanish Yamaha rider only had to avoid a mistake to carry off the victory after Stoner’s Repsol Honda teammate Pedrosa crashed out. Lorenzo led Pedrosa by 23 points going into the penultimate Phillip Island round and just needed to finish three points more than his compatriot to seal the world title ahead of the final race in Valencia on November 11.
He said this season’s title had been more of a challenge than his first MotoGP championship two years ago because of the two-pronged Repsol Honda threat of Pedrosa and Stoner. “It’s been a big emotion because this year has been tougher than my first world title (2010) because I knew my competitors were stronger and more constant this year, and I knew I had to be more constant than them,” he said.
Lorenzo, who will now return home for the final race of the season with no extra pressure, said he had learned the hard way how to succeed in the class.
“When I first came into MotoGP I needed to learn from my mistakes, know my limits and try not to go over the limit, so for this reason I am very proud of my evolution and so very grateful to my team,” he said. “I feel emotional for the toughness and the hard competition. I needed to be strong and really focused. For this reason I now feel liberated of the weight off my shoulders.”
Phillip Island was bitter-sweet for Lorenzo — he did not start in 2011 after coming off his bike in the race warm-up, severing the top of the ring finger on his left hand. “Last year here was one of my worst moments in my career, the most scary one when I had this injured finger, but one year later I can celebrate my second world MotoGP title,” he said.
