MotoGP, Lorenzo: back home. Meregalli: “On the line in Sepang only on the 9th”

The champion has returned home. Relaxed, relaxed, even happy. Jorge Lorenzo finished the last day of the shakedown test with a good time of 2’00.563, which cannot really be compared with today’s mark of 1’59.444 from Pol Espargar ‘with the KTM, but with the 2’00.625 from Dani Pedrosa on the Mattighofen Bike, best time of the first day.

“He was relaxed, it’s not that he expresses himself a lot, you know him – Maio Meregalli told us – but you could see that he was happy. And so were we “.

Now there is great curiosity as to whether we will see it in action immediately, but not on February 7th, the first day of the official tests.

“He’s only going to test one day, the last day, the 9th. We just don’t have enough material. Today Jorge rode the bike from 2019. A little bit because it was fair that he could see the level at which we’re in, but also because in reality there is no test team: When Lorenzo tests in Europe, a team from Japan comes along. Only Silvano Galbusera comes along. “

What Yamaha plans to do with the Mallorcan is hard to say at the moment, apart from the obvious one of having him on the team as a test rider. We heard from outside the pits about some of his reflections with the Japanese engineers and it seemed like we could hear the words “Ducati” and “Honda”.

Lorenzo is currently as precious as gold to the manufacturer Iwata. In fact, he’s the only man who has ridden the two most competitive MotoGP motorcycles recently. If we were in the days of Blade Runner, or even better, The Matrix, at Iwata they would have thought of connecting his brain to a computer. Neo would certainly try to download it all data in his possession in order to be able to analyze it in peace.

The reality, however, is that they will have to be content with just having it tested. But as we’ve seen, Yamaha doesn’t seem to be able to fully exploit this legacy just yet.

“I felt good straight away – Lorenzo confessed in a short interview with Dorna – Yamaha and I get along well. It’s like being home again. “

“Yamaha, like all factory teams, have three wild cards as opposed to concession teams who have six, but we don’t have a plan yet.”

There are those who swear that at Barcelona, ​​which would be the eighth race of the season, we will surely see him out on the track, but there are already bets that it could be Mugello that is the race before. It will depend on him. Lorenzo seems happy with his new role at the moment. But obviously there are those who have already vowed that he will return. And since the official team for 2021/2022 has already been defined with Vinales and Quartararo, we were even able to reform the Rossi-Lorenzo pairing with Petronas colors.

Sure, it’s all science fiction, but anything is possible with Jorge ‘The Magnificent’ Lorenzo.