Don’t doubt my riding or mentality - Lorenzo

For Jorge Lorenzo, there was no better place than home soil to earn his first podium with Ducati and give the team its 100th podium with a third-place finish Sunday at Gran Premio Red Bull de España. Lorenzo earned the spot after battling a tight midfield, passing Valentino Rossi and then Maverick Vinales for the third position. Afterward, the Spaniard – whose birthday was three days prior to the race – said the performance should serve as a warning to those who doubted him.

"Best present ever, I couldn't have a better present for my 30th birthday," he said. "It's more than a victory and more than a victory with Yamaha. Everybody knows the difficulties at this moment to be competitive with the Ducati in the dry, on a difficult track like Jerez has been for us. But Jerez is one of my favorite tracks.

"We've been strong all weekend except in qualifying, and I knew I had the pace to fight – maybe not for the podium but for fifth or sixth. Then I started overtaking riders, the race pace was quite slow because of the heat and I stayed behind [Monster Yamaha's Johann Zarco], then when I overtook him it was difficult to pull away. In the last laps my tires were better and I was able to pull away and enjoy this result for me and the team.

"I said on Thursday it's a combination of a lot of things but mainly kilometers. This is a special bike, when I arrived in MotoGP on the Yamaha I was immediately fast because it was a bike made for my riding style, but in other categories it took me a long time to understand certain things and that's happening now.

"But you don't have to doubt my riding or mentality, but some people did. They speak too early and finally they have to eat their words! All riders in this world championship are very good and can be in front, especially riders who have won races and titles. It flowed more today, but it's still not natural for me to use the rear brake. Sooner or later it will be – but I've been nine years without using that. You always have to find a way to get the maximum from the bike and every bike has a different way of doing that."