So it’s come to this. A motorcycle racing legend reduced to a pile of rubble outside the doors of the Honda Racing Corporation, a partnership alongside Marc Marquez that was touted as ‘the dream team’ a matter of months ago.
Well, it’s well and truly fair to say the dream quickly turned into a nightmare for the Mallorcan.
For the first time in his 12 year premier class career he has failed to stand on the rostrum-with it looking very unlikely he’ll manage it in Valencia considering he hasn’t scored a top ten all year-while he has been able to rack up a measly 25 points so far that leaves him a lowly 19th in the riders standings.
Lorenzo sensationally announced his retirement from the pinnacle of motorcycle racing on Thursday afternoon, so Motorsport Week decided to look back at the ingredients that came together to bake a legend.
He got off to a relatively sluggish start in his 125cc days, missing the first two races on his way to 21st in the points with a seventh as his best result.
Things improved over his next couple of years in the series though, scoring his first lightweight win in Rio de Janeiro towards the end of 2004 before notching up another three successes the year after to close out the year fourth overall behind the likes of Andrea Dovizioso and Hector Barbera.
Things immediately improved as he made the step up to 250s though as he stormed to fifth in the points in his maiden year in the championship-despite not managing a win.
This proved a perfect springboard to launch Lorenzo onto back-to-back title successes in 2006 and ’07, the more flowing nature the 250cc Aprilia’s riding style warranted fitting him like a glove.
It’s fair to say he dominated the series over his two title seasons, winning 17 out of 33 races over this period-which firmly thrust him into the e-mails of the MotoGP factories.
Yamaha secured Lorenzo’s services for ’08, which turned out to quickly pay off as he scored his first premier class victory in just his third start in the Portuguese GP at Estoril.
This would unfortunately remain the high point of his first year in the premier class, with subsequent injuries preventing more top line results following-although fourth overall at the end of his rookie campaign was a solid return.
Not so positive though was his relationship with his highly-decorated team-mate in the adjoining garage.
Lorenzo’s impressive form soon started to get Rossi’s back up, and soon the infamous wall would appear as the Italian did everything in his power to keep his secrets to himself in an effort to remain the top dog within Yamaha.
This would prove to no avail though as Lorenzo would improve to the runners-up spot in ’09-finishing off the podium just once in the races he finished- Rossi meanwhile wrapping up what would be his last MotoGP title to date.
Rossi had inflicted several over big blows to the Mallorcan throughout the year, the most infamous coming at the 2009 Catalan GP.
Lorenzo and Rossi put on a stunning display of steely determination and excellent race craft as they fought over victory, with Lorenzo seemingly coming out on top as he wrestled the lead from Rossi into Turn 9.
With very little room for passing in the remaining corners, it looked as if Lorenzo had done enough to record his first home win in the top class.
Rossi had other ideas though, and lunged down the inside of the final corner, executing the block pass to perfection and snatching victory away from Lorenzo with just meters of the race remaining.
Lorenzo would come out swinging in ’10 however, marching to his first premier class title-albeit getting a little help from Rossi having to miss four races through injury-to beat Honda’s Dani Pedrosa to the plaudits by 38 points.
He would lose his crown to Casey Stoner in ’11 despite no longer having to deal with the acrimonious relationship between himself and Rossi-who had departed to Ducati on a two-year deal- but would strike back with a vengeance in ‘12.
Lorenzo and Pedrosa’s battle for supremacy across the year was a sight to behold, the pair rarely finishing outside the top two positions as Stoner struggled for consistency in what would prove to be his career swansong.
The leading duo swapped wins almost every other weekend, although costly retirements at Misano and Phillip Island would curtail Pedrosa’s title tilt-with Lorenzo’s sublime consistency allowing him to secure his second championship with a round to spare.
A new threat was about to emerge though, one that far surpassed any previous challenge Lorenzo had come across in his premier class tenure.
This threat came in the shape of reigning Moto2 champion Marc Marquez, who like Lorenzo had in 2008 had managed to jump into a factory seat-with Honda-after clinching the intermediate class spoils.
Marquez and Honda would prove to be out of reach to everyone across ‘13 and ’14, the young upstart dominating his experienced rivals to bag his first two titles at his first attempts.
Yamaha grabbed their chance in ’15 though as Honda had gone the wrong way with the development of the RC213-V, hamstringing Marquez and forcing him to play second best to the blue machines across the season.
Rossi had since rejoined Lorenzo at Yamaha ahead of ‘13 following his disastrous two year stint with Ducati, and it seemed the pair’s prickly relationship was well in the past-until they were thrown back into a championship fight that is.
The duo were barely separated in the points battle throughout the year-with Lorenzo generally holding a slender edge over Rossi.
This was until a costly crash at San Marino- as well as only managing fourth as Rossi won at Silverstone a race before- put Lorenzo well behind the eight-ball.
Things came to a head at the Malaysian GP, although not directly between the two.
Pedrosa and Lorenzo had pulled away out in front while Rossi was struggling to hang on to third from the charging Marquez, who still held bad feeling for Rossi following their clash in the Argentina GP months before.
It seemed as if the Spaniard was playing with Rossi, trying to slow him down as retaliation for Argentina as well as scathing words dealt to him in the pre-Malaysian GP press conference on Thursday.
The pair’s tussle ended in disaster though as Rossi ran Marquez out wide into Turn 14, the two bikes touching as a result and thus causing Marquez to go down.
Rossi would go on to finish third behind Lorenzo, but the fallout following the race was what really took the spotlight.
Lorenzo himself even got in on the act, reportedly heading to the stewards to lobby for a penalty to be given to Rossi for his own part in the incident.
Rossi ultimately held on to his third place, meaning he headed to the finale at Valencia seven points clear of Lorenzo.
The year still had one more sting in the tail though, as Lorenzo and Marquez battled out in front.
If Lorenzo won the race Rossi had to get third, but if Marquez was able to deny him fourth would be sufficient to hang on to his eighth premier class title.
Rossi was unable to challenge the leading duo as well as Pedrosa who had pulled away in third, so had to hope that Marquez could beat Lorenzo to victory.
Marquez looked faster than the Yamaha ahead, but lap after lap failed to attack. His expected final lap push for victory never materialised though, and he crossed the line just meters behind Lorenzo-who had done enough to secure his third and ultimately last MotoGP championship.
Unsurprisingly conspiracy rumours circled following the event that Marquez had purposely allowed Lorenzo to win in order to deny Rossi the title, but it didn’t matter.
Lorenzo had ridden superbly all year, and thoroughly deserved to add the ’15 trophy to his collection.
Sadly the events of the year had badly strained his relationship with both Rossi and Yamaha, and he announced early in ’16 that he had signed with Ducati to spearhead their campaign for at least two seasons.
He went on to notch up four wins on his way to third overall in his final year with Yamaha, before heading off for his new adventure to try and succeed where Rossi had failed just a few years earlier.
Things initially seemed to heading for a similarly southwards direction for Lorenzo, struggling over the first few races to a best result of ninth at the North American round of the series at the Circuit of the Americas.
Things looked set to improve though as he bagged his first non-Yamaha podium result with third at Jerez, before adding another couple before the year was out-as well as unfortunately crashing out from the lead at a wet San Marino.
Hopes that Lorenzo would begin the ’18 season as a title contender immediately faded away as he failed to breach the top five across the first five events, with a best of sixth coming at Le Mans.
This led to Ducati announcing the sacking of Lorenzo on the eve of the team’s home event at Mugello, just over a year after his first race with the squad.
This would prove to be premature as a new seat modification that aimed to make Lorenzo more comfortable on the Desmosedici worked wonders, allowing him to win the Mugello race before doubling up with victory in the Catalan GP just a week later.
He added another success at the Red Bull Ring in Austria just prior to the summer break, but this was as good as it got.
To date, this is the last time Lorenzo has stood on a MotoGP podium, with injuries plaguing his remaining time at Ducati following him into his first-and ultimately last- season with Honda.
With 11th at Le Mans his best of the year, Lorenzo’s ’19 season is a fall from grace not seen to the same extent anywhere else in motorsport, maybe even sport in general.
It would be unjust to remember him this way, struggling to even keep up with the stragglers on an RC213-V that has destroyed what very little confidence he had left after his horrendous Dutch TT crash in which he fractured his D6 vertabrae.
He should instead be remembered for the crushing victories he was able to inflict on the M1 and later the Desmosedici, for his simply beautiful flowing riding style that allowed him to carry the kind of corner speed most riders could only dream of.
He may have ended up in one of the lowest places a rider could ever venture to, but he should be applauded and held aloft with the highest of regards as at the end of it all, he is and will always be a true legend of top-level motorcycle racing.
