Lorenzo looking to keep up the pressure
Added on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Lorenzo looking to keep up the pressure
Jorge Lorenzo is looking to maintain his title push and make up for lost time as he heads to his home Grand Prix in Barcelona this weekend.
Lorenzo is one of four riders who’ll be banking on home advantage as he looks to keep the pressure on Ducati’s Casey Stoner and Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi in the championship standings at the Circuit de Catalunya this weekend.
Lorenzo currently stands second in the standings, four points behind Stoner, but the 22-year-old has added incentive to put on a show for the home supporters, having missed last season’s Catalunya Grand Prix through injury.
Lorenzo’s rookie season in premier class took a turn for the worse early in the season, with a spectacular high-side crash in China leading to a series of injury problems that were exasperated by another crash at Mugello last season, keeping him out of the following round in Barcelona and effectively ending any hopes of a concerted title push.
But the former 250cc champion plans to make up for that disappointment by improving on his second place finish two weeks ago.
“I’ve had a great season so far but it hasn’t all been perfect and I made a big mistake in Jerez when I tried to pass Stoner, so hopefully I can do better for my home fans this time,” he claimed.
“After Mugello and Le Mans we know that anything can happen and you just have to keep calm and focused.
“Now we’re going to my home, the closest place to my Island of Mallorca and one of my favourite tracks. I’ve always been fast there; right back to when I went there for the first time when I was in 125s and got my first second row start.
“My main aim this time is to have a better weekend than last year and to completely forget what happened. I improved on last year in Mugello so hopefully I can do the same again in Barcelona.”
