Marquez really helpful Lorenzo to Honda to forestall Ducati domination

Marc Marquez has revealed he pitched Jorge Lorenzo’s identify to Honda for the 2019 MotoGP season in an effort to stave off a rising risk from Ducati.

Lorenzo, the one rider to beat Marquez to the title throughout the latter’s purple patch within the 2010s, had joined Ducati in 2017 after splitting from his long-term employer Yamaha.

However earlier than he might totally adapt to the Desmosedici and begin successful grands prix in his second season in 2018, Ducati had already determined to not renew his contract for the next 12 months.

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Nonetheless, the very arrival of Lorenzo at Ducati raised alarm bells for compatriot Marquez, who might sense that the Italian producer was beginning to get its act collectively in MotoGP.

It is why he spoke to Honda to get the three-time premier class champion onboard for 2019, conscious that Ducati had the potential to finish the Japanese marque’s hegemony with a rider of Lorenzo’s calibre.

“Simply when Lorenzo was already at Ducati, I informed [Honda]: ‘They’ve arrived’,” Marquez mentioned in Spanish documentary La vida en rojo.

“I say [to Honda] the most effective technique is that you just take Lorenzo and put him right here. If not, one other rider with one other model will beat you, as a result of Lorenzo is Lorenzo, five-time world champion.”

Lorenzo joined Ducati at a time when it was simply returning to successful methods in MotoGP underneath the steering of latest technical chief Gigi Dall’Igna.

Marc Marquez, Ducati Crew

Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Photographs

However like his former Yamaha team-mate and arch-rival Valentino Rossi, the Spaniard additionally initially struggled to familiarize yourself with the bike within the first 12 months.

He ended up successful three races in his sophomore marketing campaign with Ducati, together with back-to-back triumphs in Mugello and Barcelona, offering a glimpse of what they might have achieved collectively if the partnership had continued in 2019.

However by this level, Ducati had already determined to advertise Danilo Petrucci from Pramac, with Lorenzo as a substitute inking a shock cope with Honda to switch the retiring Dani Pedrosa.

Recalling his time with Ducati, Lorenzo mentioned: “I already had an inkling. What occurred is that maybe I believed the difference could be faster.

“It was a motorbike that ran quicker on the straight, it was very steady when braking, nevertheless it didn’t have the flip of the Yamaha. Mainly, I wished to trip the Ducati just like the Yamaha.

“I believed I might begin 2018 higher, nevertheless it was the alternative. On prime of that, I had the unhealthy luck of that triple crash in Jerez, and of knocking out Dovizioso, the contender for the title alongside Marquez, and that did not make Ducati very blissful both.

“After I noticed that I used to be between a rock and a tough place, I picked up the telephone and known as [Honda boss] Alberto Puig immediately.”

After a season as Marquez’s team-mate at Honda in 2019, Lorenzo known as time on his profession as knowledgeable rider.