Jorge Lorenzo to take Stoner's ride?

When Casey Stoner announced his retirement from MotoGP in mid May, 2012, it came as a massive shock to all and sundry. And it has now sent the rider market into a spin.

With one of the most competitive bikes on the grid set to be vacant in 2013, riders and teams are now scrambling to re-sign and renegotiate contracts - and one rider will get Stoner's 1000cc Honda RC213V prototype bike when they join Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda team.

All of the top riders are out of contract at the end of the year and chief among them is Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo, who was leading the championship after the Le Mans MotoGP round in France.

Yamaha is desperately trying to resign Lorenzo to the team for another two years and according to a report from Italian sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Japanese company hopes to resign the Spanish champion in the coming weeks and avoid losing its greatest asset.

Repsol Honda Team would certainly like to see another Spaniard join the team, and Lorenzo would fill the void left by Stoner, but Yamaha Motor Racing team principle Lin Jarvis (pictured) told the Italian sports bible that it expects to keep Lorenzo.

"I will not say anything about the ongoing negotiations, but it is clear that our aim is to retain Jorge for a long time: [he is] only 25 years old, and then has the opportunity to continue driving at a very high level for at least another 5 years. For these reasons we would like to extend his contract with us for two more seasons."

Jarvis admitted that if Honda offered Jorge big dollars, he could indeed leave Yamaha, but suggested that its rival wouldn't offer much more cash than the new contract being negotiated with Yamaha.

"You can think of to ask for any amount of money, but if there are resources, you cannot go beyond a certain limit and I do not think Stoner's compensation is very different from that of Jorge.

The Yamaha Motor Racing chief said that money wasn't everything, and Jorge Lorenzo has previously stated his desire to finish his career with Yamaha.

"We do not have any kind of written agreement with the other manufacturers, but the common denominator is always 'contain costs' within an acceptable limit. Also money is not everything, there are also development and technical safeguards that we can give: Yamaha has already prepared a program for five years for the World Championship, and the next two have already been fully planned," explained Jarvis.

And what about Rossi, who has said he will race for another two years in MotoGP? If Jorge did take up a ride at Repsol Honda, could Yamaha entice Rossi back? It certainly wouldn't harm sales of the R1.

"Since he [Rossi] left us we did not have great contacts, but his departure has not been traumatic. And in this world everything is possible."

The vacant Repsol Honda seat left by Stoner for 2013 could also be filled for former rider Dani Pedrosa, who knows the team and the bikes, and his current team mate Cal Crutchlow is also looking promising.

Casey Stoner has already said who he wants to fill his seat - Moto2 hot shot Marc Marquez. But this is highly unlikely as the regulations don't allow for first year MotoGP rookies to join factory teams - one of the many rules Stoner cited as a reason for leaving the sport.