Lorenzo: “Marquez and Pedro Acosta are the only killers on the grid”

Ezpeleta is wrong

“More than the fantastic four, now there are twelve of us”. The two-time reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia at the press conference in Lusail he underlined how balanced the MotoGP starting grid is and how many riders have justified ambitions of victory.

Francesco Bagnaia's reference to the fantastic four refers to the period in which Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner fought for victories in MotoGP. The latter retired after 2012 and in 2013 Marc Marquez arrived in MotoGP, immediately scoring on his debut in the premier class.

Even Dorna's number one, Carmelo Ezpeleta, declared that the current one is the best starting grid in the history of MotoGP (Ezpeleta has every interest in selling in the best possible way a product that appeals to several potential investors ready to take over the organization of the championship), a thesis on which Jorge Lorenzo disagrees. “In terms of talent, ambition and desire to be killers, with the exception of Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta, the current grid does not match my generation – the words of the five-time world champion interviewed by El Mundo Deportivo – the current one is a balanced grid with the most successful bikes in history. But in terms of personality, talent and ambition, our generation had more. I am a great defender of dialectical rivalries and the mentality of Acosta who says he didn't come to MotoGP to make friends is what distinguishes champions from great riders.”