Lorenzo visits Spanish Riding School in Vienna

Fiat Yamaha’s young Spanish title hopeful Jorge Lorenzo paid a visit to the illustrious Spanish Riding School in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Wednesday, taking some time out to relax ahead of this weekend’s Cardion AB Czech Republic Grand Prix.

Visiting an institution with more than 430 years of tradition in the art of classical horsemanship with his Austrian sponsors GRIZZLY Energy Drink, Lorenzo spoke to motogp.com, with some interesting thoughts on his mind with regard to team-mate Valentino Rossi and his Ducati rival Casey Stoner.

On the temporary absence of his hitherto fellow title candidate Stoner, who misses the next three races due to health problems, Lorenzo remarked, “I felt really bad for him when I heard the news because Casey is such a talented rider and is a really brave guy. We feel for him because it’s a serious issue and we hope he’s ok. For the competition in general it’s also bad because we have one rival less and in this case it’s Casey, who always gives 100% and is always great to race against.”

Asked whether he thought the title battle was now a two-way fight between himself and Rossi, Lorenzo replied, “You never know. Dani (Pedrosa) is currently more than 70 points behind but you can not rule him out, because in this championship a thousand and one different things could happen. It looks like there are two riders with a real chance, especially Valentino, but mathematically you can’t rule anyone out.”

Looking to bounce straight back from his disappointing Donington DNF at Brno, Lorenzo also stated, “I’m really up for it, despite the crash which no-one was expecting. Perhaps it was to be expected in one sense though because the conditions were so difficult and I hit the ground because I made a mistake, but were are still in the fight for the title. Things have got more difficult, but it is not impossible.”