Jorge Lorenzo to retire from MotoGP at Valencia

Thank you, Jorge!

Spanish rider and 5-time road racing world champion, Jorge Lorenzo, announced yesterday his retirement from racing.

“I always thought there are four significant days in the career of a rider. Your first race, your first win, your first championship, and then the day you retire. Well, as you may imagine, I’m here to tell you this day has arrived for me. I want to announce this will be my last race in MotoGP, and that at the end of this race I will retire from professional racing,” announced the 32-year-old former MotoGP champion. 

This season, Lorenzo has raced alongside reigning MotoGP champion, Marc Marquez, with the Repsol Honda team. He was riding for Ducati from 2017-2018. Perhaps most people are familiar with Lorezo during his colorful stint at Yamaha, alongside Valentino Rossi and their often intense rivalry and clashes.

“I was 3-years-old when everything started. Almost 30 years of complete dedication to this sport, my sport. The ones who worked with me, know how much of a perfectionist I am, how much hard work and intensity I put into this. Being like this requires a high level of auto motivation, that’s why after nine unforgettable years with Yamaha, without a doubt the most glorious of my career, I felt I needed a change if I wanted to maintain this high commitment with my sport,” said Lorenzo.

He further added “Moving to Ducati gave me that big boost I needed and even though the results were bad, I used that extra motivation as fuel to not give up and finally win that special race at Mugello, in front of all the Ducati fans. After that, when I signed for Honda, I got a similar feeling, achieving one of the dreams of every rider: becoming an official HRC factory rider.”

It was a bitter-sweet pill to swallow for Lorenzo, who added that injuries and a race bike that was not at home with his riding made him to decide to call it quits. “Unfortunately, injuries soon came to play an important role in my season, being unable to ride in normal physical conditions. This, plus a bike that never felt natural to me, made my races very difficult. Anyway, I never lost the patience and I kept fighting, just thinking that was a simple matter of time and that after all things would get into the right place.”

Lorenzo started racing when he was just 3 years old, when most children barely know how to walk. On his 15^th birthday, he made his debut at the 125 cc Spanish Grand Prix, after having to miss practice because he was not old enough to race. He was crowned the 250 cc world champion for 2006 and 2007.

On 2010, he was crowned MotoGP world champion, which was followed by another championship in 2012 and in 2015.

Source: MotoGP.com