Valencia (Spain) (AFP)

Three-time MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo will play his last Grand Prix on Sunday in Valencia, Spain, taking a hasty 32-year retirement from the injuries that have marked his last seasons.

Lorenzo, also a two-time 250cc world champion, was still under contract with the official Honda team for 2020, but injuries and disappointing results led him to say stop, he said at a news conference. press conference Thursday.

"The mountain had become so high that I could not find the strength and motivation to continue climbing," said the Majorcan with tears in his eyes. "At this stage of my career, it was impossible to continue to find the motivation," he insisted, noting that he could not be satisfied with less than victory.

He is expected to replace Japan's Takaaki Nakagami and British Cal Crutchlow, drivers of the Honda-LCR satellite team, or Frenchman Johann Zarco, who currently serves as Nakagami's injured replacement after breaking with KTM during the season.

Since 2002, Lorenzo has spent 18 seasons in the World Championship motorcycle speed, winning the title in 250 cc in 2006 and 2007 on an Aprilia and in MotoGP in 2010, 2012 and 2015 with Yamaha, which allowed him to integrate the queen category in 2008.

"The years with Yamaha were the best of my career," recalled the Spaniard Thursday, facing the media and almost all of his opponents who have reserved a + standing ovation +.

- Serial Injuries -

In 2017, he left the Japanese manufacturer to join Ducati. "It was a big boost for my motivation, even though the results were (first) very bad," he continued.

He only signed three podiums the first year, before a first success in Italy in June 2018, a few days before the announcement of his transfer to Honda the following season.

"It was still a big + boost + because it's a dream for a driver, but the injuries came to play a bad role on my results (...) and a bike that did not suit me" , Lorenzo analysis.

The injuries actually started to overwhelm him at the end of 2018 after falls in Aragon (foot) and Thailand (arm). He was injured again (scaphoid) by falling in training during the winter, missing some of the pre-season tests, and then at the first GP in Qatar (coast).

But his two most "horrible" accidents occurred in Catalonia and the Netherlands in June 2019. Wounded in the vertebrae, Lorenzo said to have then "began to wonder if it was still worthwhile", before taking the decision to hang up after the Malaysian GP on November 3rd.

"It was a surprise even for his teammate because in the team we did not know, especially with the way he worked in the last races which was exactly the same as in his first days on the team," he said. said Marc Marquez, six-time world champion, teammate this year of Lorenzo at Honda.

"From the moment he felt he could not be among the first, he decided to stop and that shows the strength of his character on and off the track," he added.

Valentino Rossi, who was Lorenzo's team-mate at Yamaha for a total of seven years, said that "Jorge is one of the greatest MotoGP riders of the modern era", adding that "he was personally for me one of my biggest rivals. "

Often haughty and arrogant, Lorenzo did not hesitate to be exuberant at times, as by jumping twice in a reservoir on the Jerez circuit in 2010 and 2011 to celebrate his victories.

© 2019 AFP