Jorge Lorenzo has been enjoyable to watch this season, beginning every event from the front row, racing his legendary rival Valentino Rossi to the limit and forwarding on past Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa in the rankings in only his second premier session campaign.

The Spaniard began the year with a strong third placing in the Monday evening event at the Losail International Circuit behind Stoner and Rossi, having taken off from third on the grid.

It wasn't long though before he claimed his first win of the season storming to glory at the Polini Grand Prix of Japan. Again beginning from third, Lorenzo took the second premier class victory of his career by a two second margin over his team-mate Rossi to put himself at the top of the standings.

Visiting Jerez, Lorenzo commented that racing amongst the Spanish spectators in Andalusia was enabling him to ride on the edge and take risks for the glory, however he smashed out with five laps left as he tried to chase Stoner down for third spot, it was a challenging task for the young Majorcan, particularly as he celebrated his 22nd birthday the next day.

The confident Yamaha champion came back strong in France two weeks later, as he handled the wet-dry event perfectly, crossing the line in first place, while Rossi was placed in 16th spot.

Stoner then took charge from Lorenzo at the head with a brilliant victory for Ducati at Mugello in the next event, with Lorenzo placed second in front of a disgruntled Rossi at a track where the Italian had not lost since 2001.

Next will be remembered as one of the best events in years. Lorenzo began on pole and with Rossi just following him in second place on the starting grid, the Yamaha duo challenged a massive battle throughout the event, with the title holder needing all of his skill and experience to beat Lorenzo on the last corner for one of his greatest acheivement victories.

Assen was not as close, with Lorenzo making a disappointing start to the race after qualifying third and was unable to make up ground to winner Rossi. Yet, another second placing with arguably the best competitor in history is not a bad effort.

Arriving back to the scene of an amazing first lap smash last year, Lorenzo improved in the 2009 race of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, finishing over the line in third behind Pedrosa and Rossi, with only his second event at the tricky Laguna Seca circuit.

Another close challenge with Rossi at Sachsenring, which again went down to the wire ending with Lorenzo in second spot again, meaning that The Doctor had gained a 14 point lead over his young competitor by the time MotoGP came to Donington Park for the final time.

In wet weather conditions at the British circuit, Lorenzo was caught by the rain as he smashed out when heading the event, though Rossi could only claim fifth spot, having crashed himself and remounted.  There was more disappointment to come at Brno, Lorenzo crashed and took another DNF in the Czech Republic as Rossi claimed his fifth victory of the year to take on a 50 point championship advantage.

The game wasn't over yet, Lorenzo hit back hard with another fantastic performance at Indianapolis where Rossi claimed his own DNF of the year, the gap was back to 25 points with only five rounds left.

Rossi was outperformed at Mugello earlier this year for the sole time in seven years, Lorenzo kept the pressure on claiming his fifth second placing of the current campaign. Other than his three DNFs at Jerez, Donington and Brno, Lorenzo has placed on the stage at every other Grand Prix so far this season.

It was confirmed prior to his Indianapolis victory that Lorenzo will continue with Fiat Yamaha as Rossi’s team-mate next season, even though offers have been flowing from rival squads, he still has four events remaining in 2009 to attempt to break down his colleague's current 30 championship leading.