Ducati confirm Rossi coup
Date published : 15 Aug 2010 - 19:01:24
Valentino Rossi has signed a two-year contract to ride for Ducati next season.
The reigning MotoGP world champion will part company with Fiat Yamaha at the end of the current campaign, bringing to an end his hugely successful seven-season association with the team.
A Ducati statement read: "The arrival of Valentino in Ducati opens a new and exciting chapter in the Italian factory's sporting history and, indeed, of the whole MotoGP Championship."
Rossi has won four MotoGP world titles with Japanese manufacturer Yamaha since joining the factory squad from Honda in 2004, and the 31-year-old admitted leaving the team had brought a special relationship to a close.
"It is very difficult to explain in just a few words what my relationship with Yamaha has been in these past seven years," said Rossi.
"Many things have changed since that far-off time in 2004, but especially 'she', my M1, has changed. At that time she was a poor middle-grid position MotoGP bike, derided by most of the riders and the MotoGP workers. Now, after having helped her to grow and improve, you can see her smiling in her garage, courted and admired, treated as the 'top of the class'.
"Now the moment has come to look for new challenges; my work here at Yamaha is finished. Unfortunately even the most beautiful love stories finish, but they leave a lot of wonderful memories, like when my M1 and I kissed for the first time on the grass at Welkom, when she looked straight in my eyes and told me 'I love you!'"
"We are delighted to announce that Valentino Rossi will be with us from 2011," said Gabriele Del Torchio, president of Ducati Motor Holding.
"He is a paragon of excellence in the world of motorcycling."
