Has Jorge Lorenzo signed with Ducati? According to Spanish websites elPeriodico and motocuatro and Italy’s Radio 2 the Spanish rider has reached an agreement with Ducati to ride with the Italian team in 2010.
Ducati and Philip Morris contacted Lorenzo during the Brno round, after Casey Stoner’s pullout due to medical reasons.
Stoner has been the only rider that has been able to tame the Ducati D16 and take the Bologna based factory to win the MotoGP Championship in 2007 and continue to have multiple wins on the red bike.
Livio Suppo has always coddled his star rider, who is allergic to all the PR that surrounds the MotoGP circus, often taking his place in post race interviews when the Aussie rider was not on the podium.
When Stoner contacted Ducati to tell them he would not be riding the next three rounds, Philip Morris, who pulls out most of Ducati’s sponsorship money, was not happy with Stoner and the way he simply cut himself off from the rest of the world without regards to his contract obbligations.
Even Alberto Vergani from Nolan Helmets, who is Stoner’s longtime sponsor and has personally helped the rider in the past, was slightly upset when Stoner did not personally contact him to talk of his decision.
Whether Stoner can solve his medical problems and return to Ducati even stronger than before is only a matter of be being patient for another month, but next year the combination Stoner and Lorenzo is going to be extremely interesting to watch.