Jorge Lorenzo Guerrero (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxoɾxe loˈɾenθo ɣeˈreɾo]; born 4 May 1987) is a Spanish former Grand Prix motorcycle racer. He is a five-time World Champion, having won three titles in the MotoGP class (2010, 2012 and 2015) and two titles in 250cc (2006 and 2007).
After winning the 2006 and 2007 250cc World Championships, Lorenzo moved to MotoGP in 2008 to ride for the factory Yamaha team. In his first season, he was named Rookie of the Year after taking a race win in Portugal and finishing in fourth in the championship standings. The nine seasons he spent with Yamaha were highly successful: he won the championship on three occasions, in 2010, 2012 and 2015, and finished as runner-up in 2009, 2011 and 2013.
Lorenzo moved to the Ducati factory team in 2017. He struggled in his first season with Ducati, recording only three podium positions. He finished seventh in the championship, while his teammate and former 250cc rival Andrea Dovizioso placed runner-up on equal machinery. In 2018, Lorenzo regained form with victories in Mugello, Catalunya and Austria and a second place finish in Brno. Lorenzo made an ill-fated move to Repsol Honda in 2019, and retired at the end of a disastrous season.
Lorenzo ranks fifth on the list of all-time premier class race winners, with 47 victories from 203 starts, and third on the list of all-time premier class podium finishes, with 114. In 2022, he was inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame as an official Legend by the FIM. Despite his retirement from riding, Lorenzo remains active in motorsports, having competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia in 2022 and 2023 with Team Q8 Hi Perform, and the Porsche Supercup and the Italian GT Championship with Lazarus Corse. He also performs color commentary at select MotoGP races.
125cc & 250cc World Championship
Lorenzo made his championship debut on his fifteenth birthday, on the second qualifying day for the 2002 125cc Spanish Grand Prix, after having missed Friday practice, due to not being old enough to race (minimum age regulations). Lorenzo dominated the 2007 250cc World Championship. His nine pole positions led to nine victories in 2007.
Lorenzo's victory at Misano in 2007 was his 16th in the 250cc class, making him the most successful Spanish rider of all time in the intermediate class – with one more victory than Dani Pedrosa and Sito Pons.
After being linked with a Yamaha MotoGP ride for 2008, on 25 July 2007 he was confirmed as Valentino Rossi's partner on a two-year deal for the 2008 MotoGP season.
Lorenzo made a great start to his MotoGP career, finishing second after qualifying on pole for the Qatar night race. He followed this up with pole at the second round in Jerez, Spain and third position, and pole in round 3 at Estoril, Portugal. He converted this pole into a victory, his maiden win in the Premier Class. In doing so, he became the youngest rider in MotoGP to finish on the podium in his first three races, taking the record from compatriot and rival Dani Pedrosa by a single day.
By this stage of the Championship, Lorenzo was in joint first place with Pedrosa, but on 1 May 2008 Lorenzo was thrown from his bike during practice for the MotoGP Grand Prix of China. Lorenzo suffered a chipped bone and snapped ligament in his left ankle, and a fractured bone in his right. He was still able to finish the race in fourth place. Two weeks later at Le Mans, Lorenzo suffered two accidents in the practice sessions but managed to post a second-place result. In the following race at Mugello, he crashed during the race after qualifying seventh on the grid, The next week in Barcelona, he experienced his fifth crash in four meetings, the practice session accident forcing him to miss the race.
At both Donington Park and Assen, Lorenzo was observed to be riding more conservatively after a series of injuries, but moved up the order in the later part of the race to finish sixth in each case. He has commented that he is stronger in the latter parts of races, preferring the bike when it is low on fuel. In the next meeting at Sachsenring, however, Lorenzo crashed out of the race during very wet conditions. Lorenzo suffered yet more injuries to his feet at the USGP at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on 20 July, when he experienced his seventh crash in only three months. During the first lap a spectacular highside left Lorenzo with a sore right foot (or ankle) and three broken bones in his left foot, specifically the third, fourth and fifth metatarsals. At Misano, Lorenzo clinched second place. Indianapolis saw him on the podium again, this time in third position. He eventually finished the season in fourth position.
In 2009, Lorenzo stayed with Yamaha. His season started well, with two wins – at Motegi and Le Mans – and two more podiums out of five races, leading the championship up until that point after which Valentino Rossi stole the momentum from him in the Catalan Grand Prix.
As a consequence of a crash in qualifying at the Laguna Seca round, Lorenzo suffered a small fracture in the head of the fourth metatarsal in his right foot, contusions to the bones in both ankles and damage to his collarbone in his right shoulder. Two crashes later in the season, during the rain hit British Grand Prix and at Brno hampered his title bid, as he was 50 points behind championship leader Valentino Rossi prompting Lorenzo to claim his chances of winning the title have gone. He won at Indianapolis, while both Rossi and Pedrosa crashed, reducing Lorenzo's gap to Rossi to 25 points. His first corner crash with Nicky Hayden in Australia was a blow to his title chances and Rossi clinched the title with a third-place finish in Malaysia.
On 25 August 2009, Lorenzo ended speculation surrounding a possible move to Honda or Ducati by signing a contract to race with Yamaha in the 2010 MotoGP Championship. Ducati reputedly offered him a $15 million contract to take the seat vacated by Marco Melandri which was eventually taken by Nicky Hayden.
Lorenzo broke two bones in his hand in a pocket bike crash pre-season, therefore missing most of the pre-season testing. He fought through the field to finish second to Rossi in the season opener in Qatar, whilst still not fully fit. After Rossi broke his leg in a crash at Mugello, Lorenzo became the title favourite, with a 47-point lead after four wins in the first six rounds. Victory at Assen made him only the seventh rider ever to win in three classes at this prestigious circuit.
Despite nearest rival Dani Pedrosa making up ground in the latter stages of the season, Lorenzo was still in control with five races remaining. Pedrosa, the only man who could still overtake Lorenzo in the standings, then suffered a broken collarbone during practice, causing him to miss the next two races and virtually guaranteeing Lorenzo would become champion. On 10 October, Lorenzo clinched the title with a third-place finish at Sepang behind Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso.
Lorenzo started the 2011 season with four podium finishes in the first five races, including a victory at the Spanish Grand Prix; he was benefitted from a collision between Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, with both riders coming off their bikes, and Lorenzo eventually won the race by almost twenty seconds. He held the championship lead into the British Grand Prix, where he crashed out of the race, held in wet conditions, while running third. After a sixth-place finish at Assen, Lorenzo then finished each of the next eight races in the top four placings, winning two of them, at Mugello, and Misano.
Lorenzo's season was ended by a crash during warm-up for the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. Lorenzo lost the end of a finger, and underwent successful surgery in Melbourne to repair damage to it, with surgeons able to save the nerves and tendons of the injured fourth finger of his left hand. Surgery was deemed a success and as a result no functionality was lost in either the finger or the hand. Stoner won the championship at the event after winning the race, while Lorenzo maintained second place to the end of the championship, helped in part by the cancellation of the Malaysian Grand Prix after the death of Marco Simoncelli.