Jorge Lorenzo becomes a motorcycling legend

Jorge Lorenzo, the only rider in history who has managed to win world championships against rivals such as Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Marc Márquez or Dani Pedrosa, became a ‘MotoGP Legend’ this Saturday, thus joining the formation of Part of the Motorcycle World Championship Hall of Fame.

The Balearic retired at the end of 2019 in Valencia and that same day, the head of the championship, Carmelo Ezpeleta, announced the appointment. However, the outbreak of the pandemic and the restrictions on access to the circuits postponed the official act until this Saturday, in which the Jerez Circuit conference room was filled with guests, personalities and drivers who wanted to accompany the runner, among them Márquez and Pedrosa themselves, along with Alex Rins, Jorge Martín, Pecco Bagnaia, Jack Miller, Takaaki Nakagami, Pedro Acosta or Toni Arbolino .

Lorenzo immediately recalled his debut on a Saturday in Jerez, just the day he turned 15, the minimum age to do so. In 2008 he made the leap to the premier class with Yamaha, after winning two 250cc titles. In MotoGP he achieved 47 victories and three championships, 2010, 2012 and 2015, becoming the first Spaniard capable of winning since Alex Crivillé , who did so in 500cc in 1999.

After nine seasons at Yamaha, Lorenzo left for Ducati in 2017, where he added three more victories in the two years he was with the Italian house. In 2019, after signing for two years with Honda, he decided to retire early due to injuries resulting from some bad falls that ended his career.

Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP legend

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Photo by: MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP legend

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Photo by: MotoGP

Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports, and Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP legend

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Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP legend

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Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP legend

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Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP legend, with his mother

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The CEO of Dorna Sports, Carmelo Ezpeleta and Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP Legend

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Photo by: MotoGP

The Jerez Circuit, where turn 13 from the entrance to the finish line bears his name and where he achieved great victories, could not be a better setting to become the 33rd MotoGP legend, along with riders of the stature of Angel Nieto, Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan, Mike Hailwood, Wayne Rainey, Kenny Roberts, Kevin Schwantz, Barry Sheene, Freddie Spencer and John Surtees, among others.

A distinction that “means even more than the championships” he won, Lorenzo said. “After 20 years I am here, sitting after the numbers I was able to achieve,” he said.

Lorenzo explained his first Grand Prix, with 15 years in Jerez, assuring that he did not see himself, then, capable of reaching the level of the great figures that were in the championship.

“Now I can say that I reached that level of the 125cc rivals. But also, I was able to achieve better numbers than all the riders in the championship, apart from Rossi.”

“I also met wonderful people, I ran against the best in the world,” he stressed, pointing to Márquez and Pedrosa, sitting in the front row.

“Now I get this legend award from Dorna, who has always treated me so well, and this means more than the championships, because all legends are champions, but not all champions can be legends. So I am very lucky to be part of it. of this group”.

Lastly, displaying the sincerity that has always accompanied the rider throughout his sporting life, Lorenzo assured that he does not regret anything he has done, but that if he could change something “perhaps I would have changed to have left Yamaha at the best time of my sports career (2016) or having won my first race with Ducati a little earlier (I did it the day after it was announced that I was not going to continue), because that would have allowed me to continue with them and, possibly, have won another championship. Perhaps even today he would still be active”, sighed the man from Palma.