Lorenzo stays quiet on Ducati rumours
HONDA factory rider Jorge Lorenzo has dodged questions about rumours he touted for a return to Ducati and nabbing Townsville junior Jack Miller’s seat at the Pramac team.
“I’m here to talk about the future,’’ Lorenzo stonewalled to queries about whether he or his management had spoken to Ducati bigwigs.
Miller, sitting next to the former three-time world champion at the British GP pre-event press conference, could only smile at Lorenzo’s comments. Miller, who ended up securing another year at Pramac, earlier said he had put the issue behind him, declaring it was “just business”.
“If you get hurt over every knife that got stuck in your back, you’d be stuffed,’’ Miller said. But the awkward body language between the two riders was there for all to see as they sat beside each other at the media event at Silverstone.
Lorenzo will return to racing after injury this weekend, hoping to improve on what has been a miserable year so far with the factory Honda team. His best result has been 11th in seven races.
Although Pramac boss Paolo Campinoti was keen to retain Miller, it’s now believed that Lorenzo’s agents courted higher-up executives for a return to the Italian manufacturer.
Lorenzo, who rode for Ducati in 2017 and 2018, said the two-month lay-off because of a back injury had made him reconsider his riding future.
“I had doubts about my life and my career,” he said. “After two weeks, I started to recover quicker,” he said, leading him to commit to Honda for 2020.
Miller goes into this weekend’s grand prix in good form, thanks to a third in the Czech GP and having been in contention for another podium in Austria until one mistake sent him sliding off.
“I had that podium pretty much in my hand and I threw it away so you know I was p---ed off but anyway, we’ll move on, it’s motorbike racing,” Miller said.