MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo burns leg while celebrating title

New MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo burned his leg as he celebrated winning his third title at an airport near Palma, Majorca. Surrounded by excited, shouting fans, he revved up the replica Yamaha R1, but the radiator hose blew and scalded him.

Lorenzo had arrived back in Majorca to fanfare, with crowds lined up to welcome him back. The plan was for him to ride into the city centre with hundreds of other riders, but after the burn this didn’t happen. Lorenzo was taken to hospital for treatment, but later reappeared out of his overalls and in normal clothes, with his leg bandaged up. He continued his celebrations, but instead of riding in he was taken into Palma in a car, later going up on a balcony to show his trophy off.

Lorenzo’s season was hard fought, with team-mate and MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi fighting him all the way, as well as fellow Spaniard and 2014 world champion Marc Marquez battling it out. After Marquez crashed into Rossi in Malaysia, Rossi was awarded three penalty points and ordered to start at the back of the grid at the final race in Valencia.

Lorenzo won this final race, as well as taking pole position and the fastest lap, giving him the championship with a margin of five points from Rossi, who finished fourth in Valencia. Lorenzo won seven of the 18 races this year, compared to Rossi’s four and Marquez’s five.

However, Rossi was more consistent than either of them, managing to finish on the podium 12 times over the course of the season, which enabled him to take the championship right down to the wire.

The 2016 MotoGP world championship starts in Qatar on March 20th. Key players will include world champion Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.