Lorenzo's pole-winning lap motogp 2016 round 1

Lorenzo's pole-winning lap motogp 2016 round 1. Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo have exchanged heated remarks in the media after their near coming together in FP4.

During the Free Practice 4 session on Saturday at the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar, Valentino Rossi found his Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammate Jorge Lorenzo while on a fast lap. Lorenzo was not pushing as hard as ‘The Doctor’, who recently announced a new two-year contract, and Rossi was forced to abort his lap. The pair exchanged hand gestures and then pulled alongside each other at the end of the session.

“He exited from the pit without looking at the track and when he arrived at the first corner he tried to slow down but he was on the line,” said Rossi during his media scrum.

Jorge Lorenzo had a different version of events saying: “In my opinion he had no reason to complain. Everyone knows when you exit the pits you can’t stop to let them past. The only thing you can do is stay on the white line. I cannot be in the gravel. What can I do? If he is still angry with me I don't know the reason, you have to ask him.”

This is not the first time the two teammates have had a disagreement about who should or shouldn’t be on the racing line. Back in 2015 during Q2 in Misano, Rossi hindered Lorenzo while the Majorcan was on a fast lap. Rossi was awarded a penalty point for this. “The problem is that this situation happened in Misano qualifying, where I did the same mistake. He was very angry with me after and in the end they gave me one point. But they don't give to him one point,” said Rossi.

Valentino Rossi also took the opportunity to address rumours Lorenzo is in talks with Ducati about a shock move to the Italian factory in 2017: “For me, to go to Ducati you have to be very brave, You have to have guts to change bikes.”

This came as a response to Lorenzo claiming Rossi had no other offers on the table for 2017, that he “Has done well with not many options remaining.”

While Lorenzo may be thinking about a change of scenery, Rossi remains happy in Yamaha: “It’s the right thing to do two more years. I’m ready to train and give my maximum as always. It’s nice to do it with Yamaha because, 90%, I’ll finish my carer there like I said I would.”

source:motogp.com