Jorge Lorenzo says he is getting on better than ever with Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi despite going into Sunday’s British Grand Prix with the pair tied at the top of the MotoGP championship.

The Spaniard, whose relationship with the Italian great was once so bad that a wall divided their garage and they barely spoke to each other, leads on race wins after Rossi made the early season running.

With Honda’s reigning champion Marc Marquez 52 points behind and seven rounds remaining, the title is looking like a high stakes battle between the Yamaha pair for the first time since their icy 2009 season.

Lorenzo, a three-times British GP winner, played down the likelihood of fireworks ahead, however.

“For the moment, the relationship is better than ever,” he told reporters yesterday.

“Before it was not so good.

“When I arrived in MotoGP I was 20 years old, I was very ambitious and he was in the best period of his career and he was protecting a little bit his space and position on the team,” said the 28-year-old double world champion.

“I wanted to get close to him or beat him as soon as possible.

“So for this reason I think we got this little tension that now has disappeared quite a bit. For sure if in the future some situation happens that can create some friction between us, relations can change.

“But I don’t believe it will be as bad as in the past.”