Jorge Lorenzo will be 21 years old in May of 2009 and he has already notched a MotoGP victory, a ‘Rookie of the Year’ award, two 250cc world championships and became the latest rider in a very exclusive club to have won Grands Prix in all three categories. 2008 was the Spaniard’s first season with the Fiat Yamaha Team and also within the premier class and he dazzled from the opening moments of the long eighteen race series by taking a podium under the night glare of Qatar and his maiden MotoGP triumph two rounds later in Portugal.

With four podiums in the first five rounds Jorge exceeded expectations but his inexperience on the bigger machine quickly told upon arrival at Shanghai where a big practice crash led to broken ankles. He missed a home GP appearance in Catalunya after another mishap but regained confidence in the second half of the season to mount the rostrum on two more occasions. It was a bittersweet but mainly impressive campaign for the enigmatic youngster and fourth position in the standings was a classification he could feel pleased about. 

Lorenzo was born on the Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain on 4th May 1987. He began riding motorbikes at home at the tender age of three and within months of taking to two wheels was competing in his first minicross races. In 1995, aged eight, he won the Balearic title and followed that up the following year by taking the Island’s minicross, trial, minimoto and junior motocross titles.

Lorenzo graduated to road racing and national competition in 1997 and it didn’t take him long to adjust, winning the Aprilia 50cc Cup in 1998. Despite officially being too young, a special dispensation in 2000 allowed him to compete in the Spanish 125cc series at the age of 13 and he made history the following year when competing in Europe and becoming the youngest ever winner of a European 125cc race.

The precocious teenager, once again showing that age was no limit to a quick rise up the ranks of motorbike racing, made his first foray onto the world stage with Derbi at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez in 2002, the third round of the season. He did not reach the legal age of 15 until Saturday and therefore missed the first day of practice but was unfazed by this and impressed the paddock by qualifying for the race, cementing his position in the World Championship over the course of the season as he got to grips with the circuits.

The young Mallorcan came of age the following season, winning his first 125cc Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro and then going on to win three more races the next term, finishing fourth in 2004 and taking his podium tally to nine before making the step up the quarter-litre class and switching to Honda machinery. Six podium finishes and four pole positions in his rookie 250cc season sealed fifth in the championship and, with a move to the Aprilia factory team, 2006 was widely expected to be his defining year.

Lorenzo indeed surpassed all expectations in 2006, dominating the class with eight wins and a record-equalling ten poles, clinching his first world title convincingly. 2007 saw more of the same and an incredible nine pole positions saw him win from every single one of them, claiming his second world title at the penultimate round in Sepang. He also became the most successful 250cc Spanish rider of all time in the process.

A colourful character that is fond of theatrics, Lorenzo has a tendency for exuberant post-race celebrations, which make him a popular figure with the fans. Appearing as a Gladiator, as a boxer and planting ‘Lorenzoland’ flags at Grand Prix where he has conquered are all part of the show.
His nickname ‘Por Fuera’, is an allusion to a flamboyant philosophy and references his outside overtaking manoeuvre enacted on Dani Pedrosa when he claimed his first GP win in Brazil.