Jorge Lorenzo Ready to Rumble

Henny Ray Abrams | October 14, 2010

PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA, OCT 15 – Now that he’s wrapped up the 2010 MotoGP World Championship Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo is ready to come out fighting.The Majorcan won the championship with a third place finish in last weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang, a race where he only needed to finish ninth or better. With the title fight behind him, Lorenzo has vowed to fight for wins in the last three races of the season, beginning with this weekend’s race in Phillip Island, Australia.Lorenzo was noticeably miffed when teammate Valentino Rossi raced him hard over the last two laps of the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. Rossi answered every one of Lorenzo’s moves, sometimes with contact, and beat him for the final spot on the podium. By not finishing second or better in Japan, Lorenzo’s coronation was delayed one week.Now, less than a week after winning the crown in Sepang, Lorenzo said becoming Spain’s second premier class champion is still sinking in.”It sounds very good to hear the words ‘world champion,'” he said on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix before giving fair warning to his rivals. “Now the goals are completely different. I don’t need any more points to get the championship but I would like to finish the season fighting for victories and I will try at my maximum.”In the aftermath of Malaysia, Lorenzo said “the feelings you get winning the world title are very special and very warm, so I’ve done a lot of interviews and lots of celebrations with the team and we are still celebrating every night. Not as much as the first one, but I am really happy.”The celebrations have been with his team, who, in a show of bonding, collectively shaved their heads following the race. The real party will come when he returns home to friends and family in Spain following Phillip Island, the last of the three consecutive Australasian flyaways.”I would like to do this and I am excited to make it,” he said, “but I am more excited about being on the bike tomorrow and trying this race at the maximum without any pressure.”Phillip Island is a favorite of many riders, including Lorenzo, though he admitted he didn’t understand the track when he first arrived in 2002.”It is really special this track and very different,” he said. “I remember the first time I came here I was riding the Derbi 125 and I was completely lost, because the feeling you get on this track is so different to another you don’t know if you can handle is. This is eight times I’ve come, so now I understand much more the little secrets this track has. My feeling is good.”