Lorenzo started the

Lorenzo started the 2011 season with four podium finishes in the first five races, including a victory at the Spanish Grand Prix; he benefitted from a collision between Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, with both riders coming off their bikes, and Lorenzo eventually won the race by almost twenty seconds.^[23] He held the championship lead into the British Grand Prix, where he crashed out of the race, held in wet conditions, while running third.^[24] After a sixth place finish at Assen, Lorenzo then finished each of the next eight races in the top four placings, winning two of them, at Mugello,^[25] and Misano.^[26]
Lorenzo's season was ended by a crash during warm-up for the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. Lorenzo lost the end of a finger, and underwent successful surgery in Melbourne to repair damage to it, with surgeons able to save the nerves and tendons of the injured fourth finger of his left hand. Surgery was deemed a success and as a result no functionality was lost in either the finger or the hand. Stoner won the championship at the event after winning the race, while Lorenzo maintained second place to the end of the championship,^[27] helped in part by the cancellation of the Malaysian Grand Prix after the death of Marco Simoncelli.