MotoGP News
Date: 11/August/2011
The MotoGP summer break always spawns unlikely rumours, and the 'best' from this year's holiday period was that Valentino Rossi would quit Ducati after just one season and head for Honda in 2012.
Fellow Italian Marco Melandri, a former MotoGP title runner-up who is now battling for the World Superbike crown, appeared to be the source of the story and Rossi served up his light-hearted revenge on Thursday in Brno.
Rossi said: "Yes, I read something from my new manager, Superbike rider Marco Melandri, who seems to know everything about my decision for next year!
"Joking aside, it is not in doubt. The contract is signed and the situation is 100 percent fixed. So for sure I will race with Ducati again next year - if Melandri agrees!"
Melandri meanwhile claims that his 'Rossi to Gresini Honda' comments weren't meant to be taken seriously.
Writing on his Twitter page, he explained: "Kidding I said Rossi was looking for a Honda and everyone wrote about it… Why do I always have to look like a bad boy? Just let me race."
Rossi won his first three MotoGP world championships for Honda before a somewhat acrimonious split at the end of 2003. The Italian then moved to underdogs Yamaha, where he won a further four titles, before joining Ducati at the start of this year.
But Rossi has only taken one podium on the carbon-fibre framed Desmosedici and Melandri seems to have provided the quote many in the Italian press had been waiting for about a possible divorce.
In reality, both Rossi and team-mate Nicky Hayden have a Ducati contract in place for 2012, when MotoGP will switch from 800 to 1000cc engines.
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