Jorge Lorenzo in statements for the podcast “The Wild Project” talked about the rivalries that existed during the years he was racing.
These rivalries included those with Valentino Rossi, which, at the time, was much talked about when the former Italian rider in 2015 lost the opportunity to fight for the MotoGP title. Lorenzo also spoke about Rossi’s mentality regarding the rivalries he faced and how the mind of the former Italian rider worked throughout his career.
– Rossi was a friend of Marco Melandri, but as soon as Marco started to show his potential and rise to a higher level, he ousted him, expelled him. With Sete [Gibernau] it was the same, they were very close friends and when he started to fight for the World Championship, they became enemies. The same with Stoner, with me, with Marquez. They were very close friends with Marquez and always embraced each other, because Rossi had accepted that Marquez was his successor. And when, in 2015, Rossi could have won his last world championship, his ninth world championship, and they touched in Argentina and Marquez fell, enemies.
He also added: ‘If you are slower than Rossi, you can be his friend, but we can also. But I think he also needed to create an enemy to motivate himself. And he created it for himself, forced it. When he had someone at his level, he turned them into an enemy and the friendship ended’.
