Rossi's Yamaha contract extension prompted Ducati to tempt Lorenzo

Both Yamaha riders were offered two-year contract extensions before the Qatar season opener last month, and while Rossi signed his with little delay, Lorenzo did not.

By that time, Ducati had decided it wanted to sign Lorenzo or Marc Marquez, and Rossi's new deal accelerated the call to "take a chance" and step up its pursuit, with Lorenzo's deal announced on Monday.

"Everything became a little bit more interesting around Qatar," Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti said.

"At that time, obviously, also Yamaha announced that it had renewed the agreement with Valentino Rossi.

"At that point we felt it was the time to see if there was a real chance to make a serious approach and try to sign one of the two riders.

"But on the other side we thought it was more favourable situation, for many reasons, with Jorge than with Marc.

"Obviously Honda at the moment, with all due respect for Dani [Pedrosa], is counting very much on Marc in order to win races and be challenging for the championship.

"We thought that for them it was a must to try to keep Marc.

"On the other side, the fact Yamaha had already announced the signing of Valentino, we thought there was a possibility to explore and we eventually closed the deal."

Ciabatti reiterated that Ducati is in no immediate rush to select Lorenzo's new team-mate.

Current factory riders Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone are both out of contract but one is due to stay, with Pramac satellite Scott Redding's best chance likely to come if both decide to leave.

"We spoke to them when we made the decision," Ciabatti said of Dovizioso and Iannone.

"It will be important to keep one of the two current riders because continuity of the work we have been developing with both of the Andreas.

"Don't forget that both are with Ducati in MotoGP since 2013 - Iannone two years with Pramac and Dovizioso since 2013 on the factory team.

"Also Scott is a Ducati rider, under contract with us, and we look with a lot of interest to his performances.

"He could have been on the podium in Argentina but he unfortunately had a technical problem, so he is doing a good season.

"In principle, and if possible, we would like to retain one of the two Andreas."