Jorge Lorenzo, won the season-opening Qatar MotoGP Madrid - Arabstoday  The Spanish 2010 world champion Jorge Lorenzo, on board a Yamaha, won the season-opening Qatar MotoGP Sunday to record his first major victory at the desert venue. Lorenzo finished ahead of the Honda duo, Spain\'s Dani Pedrosa and world champion Casey Stoner of Australia, after a roller-coaster of a race.
The Spaniard started from pole position but lost the lead after three laps to Stoner who looked on course for a fifth victory in the MotoGP class in Qatar.
Stoner was in pole position and maintained his lead until the final stages of the 22-lap race. However his advantage began to be eroded away into by the charging Spanish duo as the Australian\'s decision not to test over a full race distance in the winter began to prove costly.
With only three laps remaining, Lorenzo snatched the lead and kept his advantage to win by 0.832sec from Pedrosa with Stoner finishing almost three seconds off the pace.
Afterwards Lorenzo told reporters \"I put everything I had into attack and I won. This victory is because I never gave up, kept pushing and trying. Casey was very strong at the beginning and opened a gap.
Fortunately for us he struggled at the end and dropped his pace where I could keep mine so I managed to pass him. I am very grateful to Yamaha because they have made a big step this winter.\"
Stoner recalling his stumble stated, \"We were by far the fastest out there but after four laps I was starting  to get real arm pump, my arms were shaking off the bars and I was holding on with two fingers,\" said Stoner who had been two seconds ahead at one stage. I couldn\'t grip and I couldn\'t use the brakes. Without that there was no problem to win, we\'re really happy with the speed of the bike. I\'ve got two weeks to go away and train and we can come back again.\"
He added: \"I felt like a backmarker at the end, but I couldn\'t hold onto the bike, I couldn\'t do anything. But if we sort it out, we will be OK.\"
It was a good night for the Spanish competitors, as along with Lorenzo, there were also wins for Maverick Vinales and Marc Marquez who won the Moto2 and Moto3 races respectively.
The next race of the championship takes place in Jerez, in Spain\'s Andalucia on April 29.