With Gorgeous Jorge Lorenzo looking more and more likely to sign a new two-year deal to remain with Yamaha, the lock out of the competitive works bikes looks complete with three of the old guard and one impossible youngster riding them.

Four more works bike are now left. Two red ones and two probably blue and white ones. Andrea Dovizioso would appear to be the lynchpin around which everything else is nailed and until he makes a choice between remaining where he is or disappearing to Suzuki, the market may not move.

Dovizoso is in a tough situation. On one hand, he currently has an uncompetitive Ducati that might well get to be all new and better next year. On the other hand, there is an not-yet-finished Suzuki that needs to get better through the remainder of year and over the winter. Is it a case of better the devil?

Suzuki would like an old hand and a young gun, so a combination of Dovizioso and Scott Redding or Aleix Espargaro would do nicely. Dovi needs to develop the bike around the current carbon brakes and Bridgestones, but also begin the procedure of switching to Michelins, which will take six months of testing to get right, according to HRC boss Shuei Nakamoto.

If Dovi doesn’t turn out to be the man for the job, enter Cal Crutchlow. The Britain doesn’t have the experience, or maybe outright pace, of Dovizoso but has the tenacity to grind out some results if the bike vaguely suits the riding style he is unwilling to change. Either of these moves leave a space for Andrea Iannone in the works team, something he thoroughly deserves after his performances this year.

If that doesn’t happen, he is on the very long Suzuki list, as is Aleix Espargaro and Eugene Laverty. The Spaniard already has an association with Yamaha and could be very well placed to do a straight swap with the underperforming, in races at least, Bradley Smith and join brother Pol in the Monster Yamaha team.

Laverty says he is in talks with Suzuki, Ducati and Aprilia for a 2015 MotoGP seat. He went quite a long way down the contract road with Pramac last year and could be a dark horse as his old Aprilia boss Gigi Dall’Igna is now in the chair. He still has ties with Aprilia, who are apprently beginning to regret replacing him with Marco Melandri in the World Superbike team, and has already tested the Suzuki at Okayama and Phillip Island. Rule the talented Irishman out at your peril.

Redding says he has options if a factory bike at Gresini doesn’t appear. They may well be at Suzuki or maybe one of the Forward NGM spots once Colin Edwards clears off. He has already tested a works Ducati at Mugello but there is also a strong possibility that his MarcVDS Moto2 team could make the jump to MotoGP with a Kalex frame and Yamaha engine.

Stefan Bradl needed a strong result at the Sachsenring but didn’t get it as although his team were able to switch tyres on the grid, he was left with wet settings in the forks which was about no help whatsoever. Jack Miller is a strong candidate to jump straight from Moto3, but Marc Marquez has warned against it, saying it is better to go through Moto2.

It is doubtful that Jonathan Rea would take his place in the LCR team but the hard-riding Castletown man has such a strong relationship with HRC, he might get one of the new, pneumatic-valved RCV1000Rs to play with. Especially if he wins the Eight-Hours again.

If that does happen, then the World Superbike paddock might start to make some moves, but that’s a whole other story…