Honda’s Marc Marquez has come to his future teammate Jorge Lorenzo’s aide following his latest verbal fight with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.
The relation between Lorenzo and Dovizioso hasn’t been great off late and it took another ugly turn over the MotoGP weekend in Malaysia. The Spaniard attempted to make a return to competitive racing after his crashes in Aragon and Thailand.
However, Lorenzo wasn’t 100 percent fit which forced Ducati to bring in Michele Pirro for FP3 and the rest of the weekend. Following the qualifying, Dovizioso’s remarks over Lorenzo’s ‘strange absence’ ignited a response from his teammate on Twitter.
Lorenzo took offence, stating: “Thank you very much AndreaDovizioso! You’re a real gentleman. An exemplary companion. You applaud him under the podium when he wins and then…(that if, does not give your opinion, is not your problem).”
When asked by a fan as to who is Dovizioso, the MotoGP champion called the Italian out as a ‘125cc champion’ – both seemingly done in a sarcastic manner. The fallout comes at a time when Lorenzo is ready to switch to Honda in 2019.
Dovizioso shrugged off the comments made by Lorenzo, stating that his teammate responded only reading the headlines and not knowing the full context – which he says is usual for Lorenzo to do.
Amid all the furor, Ducati has confirmed that talks will take place between Lorenzo and Dovizioso this week in Milan to sort out the matter and end the season on a high at Valencia later in the month.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo’s future Honda teammate Marquez has sided with his fellow countryman, adding that no rider will want to miss races even though he is to change teams in the following season.
“We are talking about a rider who ran in Assen 24 hours after surgery on a clavicle,” said Marquez to Marca Radio upon his return to Spain, following the four races in Thailand, Japan, Australia and Malaysia.
“Yes, it is true that when there is nothing at stake the point of suffering is different. I think that the people who write that (that Lorenzo deliberately didn’t ride) do not know anything about athletes.
“Sometimes we run with a broken collarbone because this movement does not hurt us so much, but we are constantly using the wrist and therefore if Lorenzo didn’t ride it’s because the pain prevented him.”