Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo has explained his actions during yesterday’s Valencia MotoGP where he repeatedly ignored team orders, saying he had better pace than championship challenger Andrea Dovizioso and was was towing him to the front.

Lorenzo received at least five of the ‘mapping eight’ dash messages first seen at Sepang, plus a pitboard with -1 and a down arrow on it, but said he felt he had better pace and was doing what was right for the team.

“I saw the messages but even looking at this suggestion I kept pushing. My feeling was the truth because I helped him to improve this one or two tenths of pace to be closer to the first group. My intention was to arrive to the first group, like I did because I was behind Pedrosa, and Dovizioso was on my wheel and had the option to win I would let him pass. Unfortunately was not like that,” said Lorenzo, speaking in a heated media scrum

“If I saw that Marquez had crashed I would let him go. What more can I do? I tried to make my best for the team, for me and for Dovi. Maybe in some corners Dovi was close and I slowed down a little bit to give him some space but in general terms over 30 laps having my Ducati in front of him made him improve.

“I knew Dovi was making his best pace of the weekend in the race through the help of my wheel, and it was like that. I am happy because I was not wrong. If I was slow and stopping him then I would be very sorry but my feeling was true.”