Leading on from Valentino Rossi’s tale of woe last week, we unfortunately had to witness another-much worse- story unfold throughout the year, that of Jorge Lorenzo’s MotoGP swansong with the factory Honda squad.
Lorenzo joined his third manufacturer in four years, following on from his two-year spell at Ducati after departing the Yamaha outfit at which he secured his three premier class titles.
Ahead of 2019 excitement was rife about Honda’s ‘dream’ line-up, with Lorenzo joining reigning five-time MotoGP champ Marc Marquez at the team.
Few expected any close-fought battles for supremacy early on though, with Lorenzo’s Ducati experiment for example taking nearly a season-and-a-half to truly come good on a bike significantly easier to handle than the RC213-V.
The Mallorcan looked pretty decent in his first test for Honda at Valencia at the conclusion of last season though, although this was on the ’18 spec machine that would soon be replaced by Honda’s new challenger.
Reality soon bit though, and Lorenzo struggled to adapt to the new evolution of the RC213-V across the final pre-season tests- his lack of speed and comfort spilling over to the first races of ’19.
He was able to score points-albeit only just with 13th and 12th place finishes at the season opener at Losail and the second race in Argentina- but was generally hanging around towards the back of the classified finishers.
Things failed to improve as the season wore on, a best finish of 11th at Le Mans beginning to display a crack of light to Lorenzo’s plight.
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He then looked fast at Barcelona-the venue he had taken the second of his back-to-back victories with the Ducati a year earlier- bursting up through the field on the first lap to a remarkable fourth before challenging Maverick Vinales for third.
He let his excitement get the better of him though, tucking the front of his machine and wiping out not only Vinales, but Dovizioso and Rossi too.
Lorenzo’s disappointment was obvious, but the pace he had shown promised that the pain would soon be over and he would start to rack up the podiums and battle for wins much like he had with the Desmosedici.
It didn’t work out that way though, and this was as good as it got.
A horrifying crash in practice for the next round of the championship at Assen caused him to fracture his T8 vertebrae in his back, immediately ruling for four races.
So keen to find form was Lorenzo that he had travelled to HRC’s factory in Japan following Mugello in order to try and find some much needed confidence from his steed, deciding to try and play around with different seating positions and the like to try and make progress.
It must be remembered that a single fuel tank adjustment practically transformed his form on the Ducati from podium challenger to race winner practically overnight 12 months earlier.
Unfortunately nothing seemed to work, and following his comeback at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix his speed and confidence only seemed to fade further, Lorenzo cruising around at the back until he announced his retirement from professional racing ahead of the final round of the year in Valencia.
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The true yardstick to illustrate Lorenzo’s struggles comes in the shape of team-mate Marquez, who notched up 12 wins as he marched to sixth MotoGP world title- outscoring him by a mammoth 392 points.
It was indeed a truly horrific final year for the legendary Lorenzo, a true great that not only took Yamaha to three more world titles but also tamed Ducati’s Desmosedici and began to show long-time number one Dovizioso the way-albeit slightly too late to save his future at the squad.
Hopes were high that he could mould himself to the Honda the same way he could to the Ducati, but sadly for Lorenzo, this proved to be simply one challenge too many.
