Jorge Lorenzo admits rejecting Honda offer

Jorge Lorenzo rejected a multi-million pound offer to join Honda as Casey Stoner’s replacement before opting to sign a new two-year deal with Yamaha.

The Spaniard will remain on board a factory YZR-M1 for 2013 and ’14 in a deal confirmed by Yamaha earlier this week.

But the 2010 world champion confirmed the decision to knock back Honda’s proposal had been very tough and only reached as Yamaha improved its offer.

The former 250GP world champion said: “I am happy with Yamaha and I kept thinking I would like to continue here. But it was very hard to take the final decision. It was very difficult to take a decision because I had on offer from Honda and to make the decision was very tough. But finally my heart said Yamaha. Normally it takes more time to decide and the last time I signed a contract we spent more months and more races but this time it happened like this and I said yes to Yamaha. For this reason I will be a little less worried for the next few races.”

Lorenzo will start Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone with a 20-point lead over title rival Stoner having won three out of the five races.