Lorenzo on Rossi-Marquez

Former teammate of one and future teammate of the other, the number 99 weighs in

The week leading up to the Gran Premio Octo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini brought the relationship between Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) back into the limelight following Marquez' statements to the press that he’d like to ‘make peace’ with the Italian – and a few questions on the topic were asked in the Press Conference.

Would Rossi make peace? He said it wasn't needed: "It sounds a bit strange to me because in reality there are no problems between Marc and I, so I don’t know why we have to make peace."

Later, a similar question was asked - whether it's necessary: "For me it’s nice," replied Marquez. "Of course it’s no problem for me, let’s shake hands...a second time. It’s not a problem for me."

Rossi's reply? "We don’t need to shake hands. It’s ok. We don’t have any problems."

Tense it was, and afterwards, Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) was asked on his opinion. Having shared a garage with Rossi at Yamaha - that with its own maelstrom included - and raced both for many years, Marquez’ 2019 teammate was pragmatic.

“I think both of them are wrong,” begins Lorenzo. “Valentino was wrong to not shake his hand, I think he has too much pride. This attitude is childish. Above all he was wrong to have lost the opportunity to tell his fans to not boo his rivals on the podium and at the circuits. They haven’t done anything to deserve that.”

And Marquez?

“Marc I think is wrong, in a sense because it affects him a lot what Valentino thinks. He should get over it. If he doesn’t want to shake his hand, that’s it. He should move on and continue on his way. That’s my opinion…and both will do what they want.”

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