Jorge Lorenzo just moved a step closer to a Ducati MotoGP 2021 ride

Jorge Lorenzo has revealed he has begun talks with Ducati over a possible shock return to the MotoGP grid in 2021 as a replacement for Andrea Doviozoso amid ever worsening turmoil between the two parties.

Runner-up to Marc Marquez for the past three seasons, Dovizioso has had an offer on the table from Ducati for some time but has refused to sign it because he doesn’t think it represents what he is worth.

It means the second factory Ducati is now one of the last seats to be decided for 2021, with Ducati hoping to get Dovizioso to react when it began to casually Lorenzo as a solid ‘Plan B’ move.

Instead, a stubborn. Dovizioso called Ducati’s bluff by saying he’d sooner take a year out than put his signature to a bad deal.

As a result, Ducat is actioning the early stages of Plan B if it is indeed left with no other option than to welcome back Lorenzo, who enjoyed a three-race winning two-year stint there.

While he has been quick to play down the weight of the rumours in recent weeks, it appears this is the first formal acknowledgement that Lorenzo is indeed thinking of racing again in 2021.

“At the moment there is nothing certain, they are negotiating, I know they are negotiating. Where there is smoke, there must be fire…’ he wrote on Instagram.

Even so, Dovizioso – currently recovering from a shoulder injury with just two weeks remaining until the start of the 2020 season – remains a Ducati’s comfortable first choice, with Lorenzo’s aforementioned three wins going a long way to disguise a rather difficult couple of years with the Borgo Panigale squad.