When a Spanish journalist here at Brno asked Lorenzo about this, he replied: "How did you know that? I wish that hadn't got out, but all I'm going to say for now is that it's true."
But he then proceeded to elaborate on his experience with the M1 - and on whether he might share a garage with Yamaha No 1
Valentino Rossi in 2008. He claimed that he did "only four or five laps", to check the riding position and see how he fitted the machine. He said he was not allowed more laps in case he suffered a fall that might affect his chances of taking his second consecutive 250cc title with Aprilia.
"It's very sensitive," he said of the M1. "You've got to ride it really sensitively and delicately. If you move around too abruptly, it can go out of control. You've got to adapt to it really quickly."
Lorenzo also appeared to suggest that he will operate from the same pitbox as Rossi in 2008, even though Yamaha has yet to confirm its final rider line-up and which teams they will operate in. The future of
Colin Edwards, Rossi's current partner in the Fiat Yamaha squad, is not yet known, and Hervé Poncharal, chief of the Dunlop Yamaha team, has still to decide who will partner
James Toseland there.
"Rossi is the currently the best in the world and possibly the best in racing history, so I'll be delighted to be in the same box with him. It will motivate me, and I'll learn a lot from him," Lorenzo said.
To suggestions that Rossi might not welcome him, he responded: "That's his problem. Every rider has this little fear that a new team-mate might out-perform him."
Rumours now circulating at Brno suggest that, under an agreement between Yamaha and Aprilia, he might be allowed another test session on the M1 before the season ends - and that he might compete in one-off race at the Japanese GP at Motegi on October 14 if he has wrapped up the 250 title by then.
You have to wonder too if he really did restrict himself to just that handful of laps at Almeria...
