Yamaha delighted to keep Jorge Lorenzo

Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis has spoken of his delight at Jorge Lorenzo’s decision to sign a one-year extension to his factory Yamaha contract.

The Spaniard shunned a multi-million pound offer to join Ducati in 2010 to renew his factory Yamaha contract ahead of this weekend’s Indianapolis MotoGP in America.

His decision ends months of negotiation with Yamaha, who had initially intended having the 22-year signed on a two-year deal before the start of the 2009 world championship.

Although Lorenzo has only agreed to a one-year deal for 2010, Jarvis said: “We are obviously delighted that Jorge has decided to stay at Yamaha for the next season and we hope that he will remain at Yamaha for many years to come.

“Jorge has shown his talent, his ability to learn and to compete at the highest level with many excellent performances in 2008 and 2009.

“We have no doubt that he has the ability and drive to become MotoGP world champion and we are proud that he has decided to remain with Yamaha, despite having received some very serious approaches from some of our competitors.

“This timely decision now allows us to focus on the present championship, where our riders are currently first and second, and to make definitive plans for our 2010 MotoGP program.”

As well as Ducati’s lucrative offer, Lorenzo was also a target for Honda’s official factory team and his management was also locked in discussion with Suzuki.