Lorenzo: I have two-year contract, I’ll fulfil it

On Thursday at Aragon Jorge Lorenzo responded to the rumours surrounding his future that continued to swirl around by insisting the word ‘resign’ is not “in my head”. He did, however, admit, “Anything can happen.”

The Majorcan is in the midst of his worst grand prix season in 17 years of competition after a string of high profile injuries. A failure to adapt to Honda’s difficult 2019 RC213V has been another factor in a dismal run of results.

Furthermore his crash at Assen, which fractured two vertebrae, delayed his adaption and left the 32-year old feeling “fear” when he returned at Silverstone. It can’t be easy for a five-time world champion just aiming to finish 30 seconds behind a race winner, as he has done this weekend.

“As I said in Misano, in my head I have a two-year contract and I’ll fulfil it,” he said, responding to the speculation regarding his future. “But in life anything can happen. In these moments the word resign or abandon are not in my head.

“In terms of results, it’s dark. But we’ll try to find some light at the end of the tunnel.”

Aragon was the scene of Lorenzo’s first lap crash a year ago, an incident that damaged his ankle and wrist and set in motion twelve months of injuries that have diminished the rider’s confidence.

“At the time I gave my version about what happened and it's water under the bridge. A year ago it started here, and in Thailand, and in the preseason with the scaphoid, and in Assen.

“There have been four very important injuries and although the last one is the worst, the others have also been hard and have impacted the results ”.

Will this be another grand prix based around ‘survival’, as he said the British Grand Prix was? “Survival was what happened at Silverstone because fractures of the vertebrae were not fully healed.

“Now yes, and it is more muscle pain and that’s decreasing. It hasn't been many days since Misano, but the calendar is the calendar and I hope to do the best I can and start the Asian tour much better.

“We’ve had only three days to rest after Misano. The pain continues but every day there are small improvements. The pain is disappearing and mobility is increasing, so here we hope to be closer to the front.

“The enemy is now the stopwatch. Trying to go faster every day, to be looser with the bike and with a better physical condition, everything will be easier.

“Last year Honda had an important handicap on the engine and focused a lot of its efforts of evolution to improve the power. And that brought benefits on the straight, but also complications in most corners.

“For whatever reason, Marquez doesn’t suffer so much the weak points that the new motorcycle has and the others do.

“He is able to squeeze out more power to gain two or three tenths on the straight, without losing much in the corners. We gain on the straight but we lose a lot on the corners.”