Lorenzo: 'Stay indoors and listen to the experts'

Triple MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo has posted a message urging his followers to look after themselves and others in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, by following the advice of experts and staying at home.

'Hi guys,

'I was thinking about making a video, but I was always better at writing than transmitting messages to the camera. By circumstance, I am currently in Dubai. Here at the moment the situation is (supposedly) better, but I could just have easily found myself in my house in Lugano or some other Italian or Spanish city.

'As you can see, during these days I am not posting very often, because all this has disturbed my plans and right now it is time to do what is truly important: Taking care of our health and that of others.

'We are experiencing hard times, all this is new for us and due to our initial ignorance in not knowing how to act we have greatly aggravated the situation. However, right now we are no longer so ignorant and we have much more information to make the best decision: Basically, staying at home and only leaving to meet essential needs.

'This is not a joke, life is too valuable for us to not do what we have to do. We have the best example in China, they have taken it very seriously and it seems they are controlling it. Let's do the same! Let's stay home until further notice (from the experts) and everything will be fine.

'A hug to all, Jorge.'

Lorenzo, who retired from full-time competition last year but has since signed up as a Yamaha test rider, is due to make a wild-card entry at his home Barcelona round on June 5-7. The Catalunya event is due to be round four on the revised calendar.