2009

In 2009, Lorenzo stayed with Yamaha. His season started badly, with one win out of five races: in Japan.
As a consequence of a crash in qualifying at the Laguna Seca round, Lorenzo suffered a small fracture in the head of the fourth metatarsal in his right foot, contusions to the bones in both ankles and damage to his collarbone in his right shoulder.^[13] Two crashes later in the season, during the rain hit British Grand Prix and at Brno hampered his title bid, as he was 50 points behind championship leader Valentino Rossi prompting Lorenzo to claim his chances of winning the title have gone.^[14] He won at Indianapolis, while both Rossi and Pedrosa crashed, reducing Lorenzo's gap to Rossi to 25 points.^[15][16] His first corner crash with Nicky Hayden in Australia was a blow to his title chances and Rossi clinched the title with a third place finish in Malaysia.