Valentino Rossi is ‘99%’ signed for 2021

Valentino Rossi says that the news of him signing for Petronas Yamaha for 2021 is ‘fake’, however, he is ‘99%’ signed

Valentino Rossi has been replaced by Fabio Quartararo in the Monster Energy Yamaha Team for 2021, originally Valentino wanted to see how he felt after a few races this season before signing a new contract, however, due to COVID this has not allowed him to do so.

With Ducati trying to sign nearly every major rider on the grid for 2021, Yamaha had to act fast and signed Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo very quickly into the season for 2021 and 2022. Leaving Valentino Rossi without a seat.

However Yamaha confirmed that if the nine-time world champion wanted to continue racing for 2021, they would get him a seat with full factory support, all eyes looked to the Petronas SRT seat vacated by Fabio Quartararo.

At first, the team manager Razlan Razali was against this idea and had eyes on Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jorge Martin in Moto2, however as talks went on Razlan has opened up to this idea a lot more.

Italian media reported that Rossi had signed a 1+1 deal with the Petronas SRT squad meaning he had a ride for 2021 and an option for 2022 also.

“Yeah, the news that I signed the contract already is not true, is fake,” Valentino confirmed with the media at Jerez. “But we are very close to signing the contract. I want to continue in 2021, I speak with Yamaha and especially I speak already with Razlan, Wilco Zeelenberg and Johan Stigifelt at Petronas and I have a very good feeling.

“We have some details to fix, especially the team, the people that will work for me. But it’s 99 per cent I will race for Petronas in 2021, although I still haven’t signed.”

Valentino finished the test sessions P5 overall, he confirmed he struggled with the heat yesterday and will need to adjust his tyre set up, also noting that he does not like the balance of the bike.

Featured image – www.motogp.com