Jorge Lorenzo: "With Valentino Rossi love and hate"

Jorge Lorenzo returns to his decision to leave MotoGP after the Valencia race. The relationship of hatred and love with Rossi is unforgettable ":

After the official announcement of the withdrawal from MotoGP Jorge Lorenzo starts the waltz of the interviews. Journalists, photographers and cameramen will all be for him this weekend in Valencia. There is emotion in the Ricardo Tormo paddock, for the farewell of a pilot who has written so many pages in the MotoGP annals. An unlucky career ending due to many injuries that followed one after the other. Until the most severe of Assen, where the fracture of some vertebrae pushed towards the decision of withdrawal. After five world titles and eighteen seasons it was useless to take dangerous risks, knowing that he could no longer push to aspire to another title.

With great dignity and humility Jorge Lorenzo thanked Alberto Puig and the Honda leadership for the great opportunity offered to him and apologized for not being able to give his best. But the announcement reveals itself as a liberation from an inner weight. "Part of me is sad, for me this is a small city, I have many friends. I will miss this adrenaline a lot, but another part of me is free because I will no longer have the pressure that sport brings us at these levels. In life there are not only motorcycles, but many other things that I can now dedicate myself to".

My Honda race started badly with a scaphoid injury. I didn't like the 2019 bike, it didn't offer good confidence with the front. But we continued to work and the falls of Montmelò and Assen arrived. Without those falls I would have tried another year. I realized that if I can't fight for something important, I have no motivation to continue ”. For several months he kept the decision hidden in his mind, but he gave a first warning to the HRC team manager: "A month later, Assen spoke to Puig and we tried to find the motivation – he told Sky Sport MotoGP -. But with the passing of the races I could not find motivation, but Marc and Cal did not notice any improvements on the bike in 2020. So I found no motivation. I'm 32 and I can't improve my career".

Small remorse is inevitable during a long career. Like having left Yamaha and then Ducati. "Surely when everything passes it is easy to say. We make decisions and we can make mistakes, every day we have to decide and we can make 50% mistakes. If I hadn't gone away from the Yamaha … If I had won a month before Mugello, now it would be different. It could have been better or worse, mistakes were made". What memories will you have of Valentino Rossi, with whom he shared the best years of his professional life? "With Valentino we love each other when we are far away, but when we are close we turn to hatred because we are very competitive. Now it's easier because we fight for different goals, he for fifth or sixth place, me for the tenth or fifteenth. When we were both at Yamaha – concluded Jorge Lorenzo – it was hard".