Yamaha confident Jorge Lorenzo will stay in 2010

Jorge Lorenzo’s Fiat Yamaha boss is confident the Spaniard will turn down a massive pay deal from rivals Ducati to commit his future to the Japanese factory.

Ducati and Marlboro have offered Lorenzo a deal to make him the second highest paid rider behind current Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi.

But the 22-year-old has always maintained throughout protracted negotiations with Yamaha that his number one priority was to remain on a factory YZR-M1 machine in 2010.

Ducati upped the ante though in the race for Lorenzo during last weekend’s Czech Republic MotoGP in Brno when it offered the double world 250GP champion a deal not far short of £15m for 2010 and ’11.

The Bologna factory’s pursuit of Lorenzo became moved up a notch because of the on-going health issues being experienced by 2007 world champion Casey Stoner. Yamaha though remains confident that Lorenzo is going nowhere having made him a two-year offer to remain in its factory team.

Lorenzo’s Yamaha boss Daniele Romagnoli said: “I understand the proposal of Ducati because they need a Plan B and a Plan C. They have a big sponsor but I can see sometimes in Jorge’s eyes that Yamaha is his best option. He is clever enough to understand that Yamaha is the best bike.

“I still think that Yamaha is the first option for Jorge.” Lorenzo is expected to announce his future plans during next weekend’s Indianapolis GP in American. He goes into that race trailing Rossi by 50-points having crashed out of the lead in the last two races.