MotoGP racer from Italy, Valentino Rossi, has many enemies throughout his career in the Grand Prix class. They are for instance Max Biaggi, Sete Gibernau, Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez. However, with Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi was more hostile.
From day one, deep animosity developed between Valentino Rossi and his new Yamaha MotoGP teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Lorenzo joined the factory Yamaha team in 2008 after winning two titles at the 250cc World Championship.
Rossi regards the confident Spaniard as an intruder who threatened his supremacy as number one at Yamaha. For information, Rossi has won the MotoGP World Championship in 2004 and 2005. Previously, Yamaha had missed out on the title award opportunity for ten years. In 2008 and 2009, Rossi again won twice for Yamaha in the MotoGP class.
Rossi created an arrangement that will probably remain unique. He was granted the exclusive right to use the winning Bridgestone tires with the factory Yamaha team. As a teammate of Rossi, Lorenzo had to settle for the Michelin lower tires and threw them several times when they had not reached operating temperature.
The gifted Lorenzo, as a MotoGP rookie, remained in pole position three times in the first three Grand Prix, but was injured several times. He was fast and suffered many painful falls due to Michelin inferiority and inexperience. Hence, Rossi won the world title.
This tire story is not enough. Rossi has even built a wall between himself and Lorenzo in the Yamaha box so that no secrets are leaked to his teammates. When Rossi’s contract with Yamaha ended after 2010, he made a request, “Make your choice. Lorenzo or me. Otherwise I will go.”
The Yamaha manager saw the statement as an empty threat and extended his contract with Lorenzo before the start of the 2010 season. Rossi didn’t want to lose face. He got serious and signed with Ducati for 2011 and 2012.
After reaching 17th place in the first test, he was already in danger. After two years without a win, Rossi couldn’t even hold back a 17 million euro bid from Ducati and Philip Morris for 2013.
The Doctor returned to Yamaha and was runner-up from 2014 to 2016 three times in a row. In 2017, he celebrated his 115th and final victory at the Dutch Grand Prix at the Assen Circuit.
Lorenzo joined Ducati in 2017 and 2018 and failed to race for Repsol-Honda in 2019. After a year as a Yamaha test rider, he lost his job. On the other hand, Rossi, who is almost ten years older than Lorenzo, still has a Yamaha work contract by becoming part of the Petronas Yamaha SRT in the 2021 season.
