“In his mind the bike was not good enough and there was probably two or three tenths in the garage due to motivation. This is human. We think they are robots, but we are talking tenths of a second.
“Then look at what happened after Valentino won at Sepang.
“Jorge's aggression was back and he won two of the last three races. Valentino had shown the bike worked by winning and now Jorge had to show he was the real world champion.”
It is worth remembering that Lorenzo had secured the title in Sepang, and the Spaniard may well have pushed harder simply because the world championship was secure.
Suppo, however, believes it was motivation.
“If he didn't win in the last few races, people would have said Jorge was a lucky champion, because people only remember the end of a championship, as they do with Nicky [Hayden] in 2006,” he said. “They never remember the start.”
Rossi had been the only Yamaha rider to win
MotoGP races from 2004 to 2007 and Suppo believes it is no coincidence that the perceived rise of the M1 coincides with the arrival of Lorenzo.
“When Valentino won with Yamaha in 2004 I think Honda was not so good with communication, because they should have said: 'Okay, we admit, Valentino is unbelievable - but our bike is clearly still the best'.
“At Yamaha in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 it was Valentino winning. Remember in 2007 all the problems with the bike?
“Then suddenly
Jorge Lorenzo arrives.
“Another rider who can win on the bike and in 2008, 2009 and 2010 the bike is 'unbelievable' and 'Valentino has been so good at developing the machine'.
“Without Jorge around, nobody said Yamaha had the best bike. For the first four years Valentino had been working on it nobody had that perception.
“So if it's true, this legend that Valentino and Jeremy [Burgess] can build a 'super-bike', it should have been shown before then. The Yamaha was the 'best bike' only when there was another outstanding rider able to beat Valentino.”
Suppo's theory will be tested closer to home in 2011, with Repsol Honda expanding to three riders after signing 2007 world champion Stoner to join Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso.
Honda made an impressive start to the new year, by filling five of the top seven places at the Sepang test.
