By Mike Nicks
The
MotoGP paddock keeps warming to
Jorge Lorenzo, this turbulent force who burst in from the 250cc class, won three poles and a race, briefly topped the points table, and then chucked his Fiat Yamaha down the road five times in four race weekends.
Fuelled by the macho adrenalin level that drives our mad sport, Jorge kept climbing out of a wheelchair to get on the bike, only to gyrate through the air again.
Now he admits: "I was wrong."
It's not often that a top racer - and Jorge is a double 250cc world champion at only 21 - has the humility to do that.
"It's like starting again," he said. "For sure it's not only bad luck that we have had. It's also a bit of too much stress, being in too much of a hurry. Five crashes in four races means something, no?
"Of course we can crash again: it's like we are in a game. But now we have to take things more easily and be more prudent."
Jorge, I hate to say this, but if you'd taken the advice from my previous
Crash.net column - where we were urging you to take a one-race break to heal your fractured ankles after your first big shunt in China - you'd be in a stronger state today...
