It will be an all-Spanish line-up for Honda next season as three-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo has been confirmed to replace Dani Pedrosa.
Lorenzo, who currently races for Ducati, will join Marc Marquez at Honda and has signed a two-year deal to race for them. It’s been a big week for the Spaniard as last weekend he won his first race of the season with success in the Italian Grand Prix last Sunday. That was his first win for Ducati and his sixth Italian Grand Prix success.
Pedrosa leaves Hondo after spending 13 years racing for them. It’s been a difficult time for him this year and he currently sits 12th in the championship.
Powerful Partnership
The arrival of Lorenzo at Honda will give the team an almighty strong line-up for the 2019 season. His new team-mate Marc Marquez has won the MotoGP world title on four occasions. Between them the two riders have won seven of the past eight world titles.
Lorenzo’s best successes were with the Yamaha team with the last of his three MotoGP titles being won in 2015. He left Yamaha at the end of the 2016 season and joined Ducati but has been unable to repeat his success with that team. He failed to win a race last year, the first time that had happened since he joined the championship, hopefully he’ll return to his best next season when racing for Honda and we’ll once again see him jumping in a lake dressed as a spaceman.
It’s believed that Lorenzo has signed a deal worth €4m a year and agreement had been reached before his victory in the Italian Grand Prix. That was a welcome win for the Spaniard, but he admitted the win had “come too late” to salvage his relationship with Ducati. There had been talk that Pedrosa may be riding a satellite Yamaha bike next year but now he’s Honda bound.
Source: asia.eurosport.com
Struggle for Lorenzo This Season
This season hasn’t been easy for Lorenzo who has had to retire from races on two occasions. His win in Italy takes him to tenth in the title race but 54 points behind the man who will be his team-mate next season, Marc Marquez. He was looking for a fourth straight win at the weekend but fell off his Honda on the fifth lap and could only finish 16th but still has a 23-point lead at the top of the table.
Farewell to Pedrosa
It was on Tuesday that Honda announced the departure of Dani Pedrosa at the end of this season. Pedrosa has had a difficult start to 2018 and is 12th in the championship and is currently 66 points behind the current leader, his team-mage Marc Marquez. He has failed to finish on the podium in any of the six races held so far this season. He’s won 31 races for Honda and is a former 125 and 250c champion and has finished second in the MotoGP championship on three occasions. He said of his departure “In life we all need new challenges and I feel it’s time for a change.”
