Lorenzo dismisses Ducati rumours as injury triggered “doubts”

Jorge Lorenzo says he’s fully committed to Repsol Honda and shook off Ducati rumours as he opened up on the doubts he suffered while out injured.

The five-time world champion will make his long-awaited MotoGP comeback this weekend at the British round having been out of action since sustaining a fractured vertebrae in a crash at Assen back in June.

Despite being away from the action, Lorenzo wasn’t out of the headlines as speculation grew at the Austrian round linking the Spanish rider to a return to Ducati with the Pramac squad at the expense of Jack Miller.

With Honda standing steadfast over Lorenzo’s deal, keeping him at the factory squad until the end of 2020, combined with Pramac Ducati confirming Miller would stay at the Italian team next year Lorenzo remained tight-lipped over the speculation.

“There were a lot of rumours about that, even if I wasn’t there. I never told anything because I knew I had a two-year contract with Honda,” Lorenzo said.

“But because the situation became very rare and the rumours were huge, I decided to call Alberto to tell him that I wanted to keep my commitment with the factory.”

Lorenzo revealed his two-month injury absence became a tough battle against his own self-confidence, while explaining how his heavy crash at the Montmelo in-season test contributed to his vertebrae fracture suffered at Assen.

“In Assen but also the Montmelo test crash, this created the problem I had in Assen as I was not completely healed with my vertebrae after the Montmelo test crash,” he said. “That big crash that I had never suffered in my career before but when you talk about back injuries it gets serious.

“Then I started having doubts, doubts about my life, about my career and I think it is human and normal to have these kind of doubts.

“When I started to feel better in the recovery these doubts started to disappear and the commitment and the challenge I decided to take, I became convinced about it again.

“The challenge to be competitive with the Honda MotoGP bike, to be able to win with them and to be able to win with three bikes.

“After recovering and feeling better and knowing that this injury will not create problems in the future for my health, I felt commitment to stick with this challenge.”

Lorenzo has missed the last four MotoGP rounds, plus the Brno in-season test, while his best result of the year remains an underwhelming 11th place at Le Mans. The Spaniard joined Repsol Honda on a two-year contract after being axed at Ducati last season.