Jorge Lorenzo was left 'depressed' by the real possibility💧 of retiring from MotoGP, during the difficult early rounds of this seas🎉on.

After a strong end to his debut year at Ducati, Yamaha's triple MotoG🍃P champion initially struggled with this year's GP18 and - prior to Mugello - had few desirable options on the table to extend his career.

"They say your value is from your last race – and my last races were terrible!" Lorenzo told . "It was very tough mentally, because I was working and training m🍷ore than ever bu🗹t the results were not coming.

"When I saw the possibility of ret🔯irement in my head, I was getting depressed.

"Normally when I imagined my retirement, in some way I was feeling happy, a relief, because I will not feel the pressure or be injured any more. But ins🐻tead, I was getting depressed.

"It was very close for🦂 retirement. It's true that I had ano🌺ther possibility, which was going into the satellite team with Yamaha. It was a good option, but not the option I wanted."

Lorenzo had been seeking a challenge when he joined Ducati, feeling he was "not learning so much anymo൩re" at Yamaha and having already achieved his childhood dream o☂f becoming MotoGP champion.

"But the swap was more difficult than I expected! When I tried the bike I had a big shock. I needed to change completely my riding style. It was not easy mentally, but I kept going and finall🍒y in Mugello we got the 🍒splendid victory."

Not only did Lorenzo win for Ducati at Mugello, but he had also secu🐬red his MotoGP futur꧅e in the form of a surprise factory Honda contract.

"I knew we were very, very close 🥂to victory [before Mugello]. But people didn’t believe,𓂃 because I'd stayed in Ducati for a year and a half without a victory," Lorenzo added.

"I was leading at the beginning of the races, but finally we were missing something. An♛d I knew what we were missing. But the team [Ducati] probably in that moment didn’t believe anymore in Jorge Lorenzo."

Coinciding with Lorenzo's breakthrough viඣctory had been the arrꦺival of a new fuel tank design, allowing the #99 to conserve energy under braking.

Lorenzo emphasised it was very much the final piece in the winning puzzle, rather than some k🐠ind of 'magical' transformation...