Yamaha Racing boss Lin Jarvis has revealed be believes Jorge Lorenzo would have preferred Ben Spies to Valentino Rossi as a team-mate for the next two seasons as they have developed a good relationship.

But he added that neither Lorenzo, nor Rossi, had any say in who went where in the factory team as it is written into contracts that it is a Yamaha decision as to who they field in the works squad.

"We informed Jorge, I think it was at Mugello where we had a meeting together, where we informed him that circumstances were evolving that it looked like that there was a possibility that we could contract Valentino as his teammate," said Jarvis, speaking at Brno.

"I think Jorge honestly would have preferred to keep Ben as a teammate, because he's had a very good relationship with Ben over the past two years, and that's the way that we were going as well in our early mid-season planning. But finally, he respected Yamaha's decision to bring back Valentino, and obviously, it's up to us to manage the situation.

"We never went into detail, but always in our rider's contracts, we have the choice of the teammate. So obviously, we discuss with our other rider, because it's obvious that we need to share these issues, but the final choice is Yamaha's. It was the same in Valentino's contract, and it's the same in Jorge's contract."