Marquez: "It was me who told Puig to take Lorenzo away from Ducati and bring him to Honda."

   

Jorge Lorenzo's MotoGP career was linked to Yamaha for 9 years, with the Japanese manufacturer he won his 3 titles, before the breakup.

The Majorcan left Iwata for Ducati in 2017, then in 2019 he switched to Honda, to retire at the end of the season.

DAZN Spain dedicated the special 'La vida en rojo' to this phase of Lorenzo's career and revealed some background.

It was Gigi Dall'Igna who wanted Jorge:

"we all knew we were close to winning the title, but we were lacking the champion" was the motivation.

On the other hand, Lorenzo realized that his adventure in blue was coming to an end.

"At the end of 2015 I was looking for a new stimulus after being in Yamaha for so many years, and after winning the title they didn't show me much enthusiasm, you could see they preferred Valentino media-wise," he explained.

In the early days, it was not all a bed of roses on the Rossa. Having been used to the M1, the Spaniard struggled to find competitiveness on the Desmosedici.

"I thought my adaptation would be faster, it was a very fast bike in the straights, very stable, but it didn't require the style of the Yamaha.

I wanted to ride the Ducati like the Yamaha and that's why I was not fast," he recalled, "At the end of 2017 I finished the season very competitive and I thought in 2018 I would start even better, but it was the opposite.

And there was the bad luck of that triple crash in Jerez in which Dovizioso, Marquez's opponent for the title, also crashed."

It was early in the season and Lorenzo had not yet won with Ducati.

"Everyone was wondering when my first win would come, I heard the rumor that Petrucci could replace me, at that time we were getting more or less the same results but he cost 10 or 11 times less than me. Puig called me," Jorge said.

Honda's team manager used the opportunity to take him away from his rivals, but the one who gave the input to the operation was Marc Marquez.

The champion feared Jorge on the Red. "When I saw Lorenzo in Ducati, I said to myself, they did it," he admitted.

From there he thought about countermeasures, and when he realized there was a possibility, he talked to Alberto Puig.

"I told him: the best strategy is to take Lorenzo and put him in Honda. Otherwise he will win, because Lorenzo is Lorenzo," Marc revealed.