MOTOGP: Jorge Lorenzo starts as strong as 2010

After four rounds of the 2012 MotoGP season, Jorge Lorenzo's has been just as strong as at the start of his 2010 title winning campaign. In both seasons Lorenzo took two wins and two seconds places from the opening events. He presently leads Honda's reigning double champion Casey Stoner by eight points at the head of the standings. Lorenzo has scored double the points of the next best Yamaha rider, fourth placed Cal Crutchlow (Tech 3) and is the only M1 rider to finish on the podium so far this year. The Spaniard's victory last time out at Le Mans also marked his 48th podium in just his 71st start in the top class, giving a 67.6% podium strike rate. That moves Lorenzo above 'King' Kenny Roberts Sr with only Wayne Rainey (77.1%), Mick Doohan (69.34%) and Valentino Rossi (69.31%) ahead of him in the modern-era of grand prix racing (from 1975). In the two races that Lorenzo hasn't won this year he has been less than 1.5sec from victory. The win at Le Mans was Lorenzo's 19th in the MotoGP class, which is the same number of premier-class career wins as double world-champion Barry Sheene and just one less than Freddie Spencer. The above stats underline just how much Lorenzo's signature will be key to the 2013 rider market, following Stoner's shock retirement announcement.