The scene takes place on Monday, November 18, the day after the Valencia Grand Prix, in the paddock, between the back of the trucks and the boxes.
Jorge Lorenzo ended his career in MotoGP the day before, and no one yet knows who will replace him within the Repsol Honda team.
Cal Crutchlow, Takaaki Nakagami, Johann Zarco, Alex Marquez, bets are going well in the paddock, fueled hour by hour by all kinds of rumors and clues.
Since the day before, we believe we know thatAlex Marquez will be the lucky one but that he will carry out the first tests of the 2020 MotoGP season in the structure of Lucio Cecchinello on a 2019 Honda, temporarily leaving the 2020 Honda in the hands of Marc Márquez and Stefan Bradl.
In the middle of the afternoon, this configuration seems to be confirmed with the presence of the assistantAlex Marquez in the LCR box…
Little by little, the journalists crowd into the back of the white, red and black truck, especially as Cal Crutchlow appears in civilian clothes, taking great pleasure in not denying the slightest hypothesis. The British pilot exchanges a few words with Christophe Bourguignon, his technical manager then gets into the truck. The presence of Takeo Yokoyama, technical manager of the HRC, only seems to confirm the importance of the moment…
Italian television Sky even considers the moment important enough to go on air, live, with an interview Charles Pernat who protests against the fact that Honda still does not communicate.
This only reinforces everyone's curiosity, especially since this part of the paddock is overlooked by the press room, behind the windows of which are now gathered a good dozen journalists trying to see what is going on.
Cal Crutchlow is then still in the LCR truck and, a few minutes later, after a moment of astonishment and disbelief, we border on hysteria when Dakota Mamola, his assistant, joins the British champion with an orange and white Repsol Honda suit rolled up under his arm…
From then on, the flashes crackle as soon as the rear door of the LCR truck opens ajar to let a mechanic pass: we try, in vain, to see Cal Crutchlow in the official Repsol Honda colors!
After a good quarter of an hour during which Sky returned to the air believing they had THE scoop, Dakota Mamola comes out of the truck and, still with the Repsol Honda suit under his arm, enters the LCR box.
Everyone looks at each other and comes up with their new hypothesis…
Cal Crutchlow not getting out of the truck, we decided to continue our work elsewhere, before returning half an hour later and questioning Carlo Pernat on the outcome of this Vaudeville play.
The Italian tells us in his impeccable French “yes, you are right, it is undoubtedly Álex Márquez who will ride at LCR tomorrow.
- And Repsol leather for Crutchlow?
- No it is nothing. Dakota had to get a leather from Lorenzo to boil the pot. It was just Crutchlow having fun with the reporters. »
We will never change Cal Crutchlow… And that's good !
At 18:30 p.m., the officialization ofAlex Marquez at Repsol Honda arrived via press. The paddock could then speculate on the future of Johann zarco...
