MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo confirms his "divorce" from Marcos Hirsch

Jorge Lorenzo confirmed in Assen his separation from Marcos Hirsch, who until the last race managed the Mallorcan Yamaha rider. Hirsch had looked after the world championship leader's interests for more than 10 years, especially on the physical and mental side and had been fundamental in 2008, the year in which Lorenzo had several falls as soon as he arrived in MotoGP. Here is what the Majorcan said as reported by Motocuatro.com.

“As you know, after almost ten years I broke up with Marcos. There wasn't any disagreement or anything like that. The truth is that I was lucky enough to work with three key people in my career, three people who helped me a lot, the first was my father, then Dani Amatriain and finally Marcos. They helped shape me into a better person and driver. Marcos helped me a lot physically and mentally. We have been a very good team in recent years. He has handled large contracts. But now I felt I had to change something, what I had was not enough to take a further step. Mark was a manager of course, he was a manager who came for other reasons, he helped me a lot when I had personal and professional problems in 2008 but now I don't think he is the person who can make me grow again. Albert Valera is now my new representative. He will help me in relations with the sponsors and I hope that everything goes well to ensure that he becomes an even more complete driver."

Lorenzo then firmly denied that the cause of the separation was attributable to the renewal with Yamaha and the failure to communicate a counter-offer from Honda.

“It's totally false, I've been thinking about this decision for several months. However, I believed it was unfair that Mark could not take part in this negotiation with Yamaha. I repeat, it is totally false, every time I heard about the two offers (Honda and Yamaha) and at any time I could choose freely. This rumor is totally false and I hate anyone who tells lies.”