Lorenzo: Gloves come off in 'special occasion'
Jorge Lorenzo put on a brilliant if brutal display of defensive riding at Valencia on Sunday, in his doomed efforts to wrestle the MotoGP title away from Marc Marquez.
Trailing Marquez by 13 points, Lorenzo needed to win the season finale with Marquez fifth or lower.
Lorenzo strangled the pace at the front to try and bring the other Yamaha riders into play, but couldn't afford to be overtaken and lose the race to the pursuing Repsol Hondas of Marquez or Dani Pedrosa.
"Before the weekend I thought my best strategy would be to go away at the front. But then my best engine was broken in qualifying so we had to use a slower engine from earlier in the season," said the double world champion.
"In the warm-up it was not so bad but after the session we had a meeting in my motorhome and decided to go with this strategy. Try to slow down the race from the beginning."
Lorenzo executed the tactic with near perfection, resulting in seven riders being queued up behind him in the early stages.
Marquez was naturally keen to avoid any conflict, but Pedrosa had nothing to lose and enthusiastically took on the task of trying to win his home grand prix.
Time and time again Pedrosa took the lead from sitting duck Lorenzo - only to be mercilessly attacked moments later.
"I tried to slow down as much as possible, but Dani was very strong and passed me every time," said Lorenzo. "I tried to pass him again at the next corners. Sometimes it was very risky."
The pair made contact on several occasions, culminating in Lorenzo pushing Pedrosa wide and off the track on lap 10 of 30.
"In normal circumstances I try to be clean and not touch any riders, because it is my mentality and I want to be respectful of all the riders and if I can pass them without touching, I prefer," said Lorenzo.
"But in this special occasion I had to slow down the race as much as possible, in every corner, so when Dani passed me against my normal mentality I had to pass him again and slow down the race.
"In one [contact] at the chicane I was surprised because he has a different style to me, I entered the corner faster. He braked before I expected and we touched. In [at turn two] I passed him on the inside but he wanted to keep first place on the outside so we touched.
"Sorry to him because I never want to touch any riders."
That incident allowed Marquez through into the lead, with Lorenzo in second and Pedrosa re-joining in fifth. Lorenzo overtook Marquez on the following lap and soon realised he didn't have enough support for the go-slow tactic to work.
Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow had fallen on lap 10, while Lorenzo's team-mate Valentino Rossi - third after Pedrosa's detour - couldn't keep pace and was re-passed by the Honda rider several laps later.
"Marc passed me but he did not want to fight, so then I looked behind and saw Valentino very far back. No riders with us. So I thought this [slow] strategy is done for today. I just have to try and win the race and then wait for the result from Marc," said Lorenzo.
"We tried our best to make him nervous and something strange happen at this race. But he stayed calm and focussed so it was impossible."
Lorenzo claimed his eighth victory of the season - two more than Marquez - by 3.9s from Pedrosa, with Marquez settling for a safe third to lift the title by just four points.
Race Direction declared it would investigate the Lorenzo-Pedrosa clash, but Lorenzo said he had heard nothing.
"It was an amazing show," commented Lorenzo's team manager Wilco Zeelenberg. "The first ten lap tactics were to keep the pack together. Jorge did a great job, it was on the edge and that's racing; all that counted today was the championship.
"Marc was clever and stayed calm, Jorge did his best at his maximum and he won the race but lost the championship. This loss is exceptional; he won eight races and broke his collarbone twice.
"It's an incredible result to finish just four points from the title given the conditions. It is a great achievement and we are very proud about that."
