But he figures that he can do better still by calming it a bit on day one at Le Mans. Let's see this afternoon how far he is off the fastest lap of the day, and how close he can get to pole position in tomorrow's qualifying session.
Friday am - Wheelchair and Crutches as Lorenzo Laughs at the World
In no other sport in the world would you see what we witnessed last night in the Fiat Yamaha hospitality unit here at Le Mans.
Jorge Lorenzo was wheeled to a table in a wheelchair. His battered right leg was swathed in a cast from the middle of his foot to just below his knee. He struggled from the wheelchair, to a pair of crutches, and finally to a seat at the table.
Lorenzo looked around at the journalists and TV cameras with his trademark nonchalant grin, as if to say, "What's the fuss?"
And when he is asked: "Aren't you risking your career to ride in that condition?" he responds: "It depends - if I keep on the bike I'm all right."
But what if he were to crash? The double 250cc world champion continues the game: "I hope not to crash," he says. "Normally I don't crash very much."
Cool act!!! We're used to riders struggling back onto their bikes and riding through the pain barrier. But what Lorenzo will attempt to do today when he mounts - or is lifted aboard - his Fiat Yamaha is something extraordinary, even by the mad-crazy standards of our mad-crazy sport.
Just 14 days after fracturing both ankles in practice for the Chinese grand prix, at a time when he has several years ahead of him to win the
MotoGP championships that will surely come his way, he's going out onto the brake-squirt, brake-squirt Le Mans track to defend his second place in the points standing.
Lorenzo has often said that he admires the Spartans of ancient Greece, warriors who epitomised the word “stoic”. Stoic is what this guy is - and then some.
