(Reuters) – Italian great Valentino Rossi will race for the Petronas Yamaha MotoGP team next season after signing a one-year contract renewal, Yamaha said on Saturday.
Yamaha said the 41-year-old nine-time world champion will have the Japanese manufacturer’s full factory support at the satellite team.
“I thought a lot before taking this decision, because the challenge is getting hotter and hotter,” said Rossi in a statement.
“To be at the top in MotoGP you have to work a lot and hard, to train every day and lead an ‘athlete’s life’, but I still like it and I still want to ride.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Jason Neely)
