Birthday boy Lorenzo on `unimaginable race´

In a miraculous performance on a par with any of his previous podium finishes, Jorge Lorenzo defied the odds to take fourth place in the Pramac Grand Prix of China. The Spaniard celebrated his 21st birthday nearly entirely on two wheels, switching from a wheelchair used for his ankle injuries to his Yamaha M1 to astound onlookers.

Lorenzo has never been short on confidence over the course of his career, but even he admitted that finishing so close to the podium exceeded expectations.

For me this was an unimaginable race; after Friday´s crash I thought that we couldn't participate in this condition, but not only did we do that, we finished fourth!´ said the reigning 250cc World Champion after the race.

`This wasn´t our objective; that is to continue to learn and improve at every race.´

Lorenzo´s mentor, Dani Amatriain, hailed his protégé and revealed the next step on the road to recovery ahead of the next race at Le Mans.

`It has been a difficult weekend. It was very difficult to think about Jorge being able to ride or get on the bike on Saturday,´noted Amatriain.

`The will and strength of character that he has was what helped him through. He had a great race and there wasn´t a better way of marking his birthday than this; maybe a race win, but we had a worthy victor in Valentino Rossi.´

`Dr Claudio Costa was treating him all weekend, and was clear about the injuries that Jorge has, but now we will go back to Barcelona and Dr. Xavier Mir who deals with all Jorge´s medical issues.´