COVID-19 insidiously invited itself onto the starting grid of MotoGP riders and, as if to mark its entry, it struck the most illustrious of them: Valentino Rossi. The nine-time World Champion, now 41 years old, will therefore be out this weekend and probably the next, if we remember what Jorge Martin experienced in Moto2. And again, the latter was not suffering like Vale. At Yamaha, we are feeling the blow even more as the ranks are already sparse with engineers in quarantine for the same reasons…
The news shakes the paddock. After George Martin and Yamaha engineers, it is now Valentino Rossi who tested positive for Covid-19. The pilot Yamaha will be forced to miss Sunday's race in Aragon and probably the one scheduled for next week on the Spanish track. For the moment, we do not know the name of the driver who should replace him.
Lynn Jarvis, the boss of the troops Yamaha on the ground marks the occasion: “ this is bad news for Valentino and bad news for the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team and for all MotoGP fans around the world. First of all, we hope that Valentino does not suffer too much in the coming days and makes a full recovery as soon as possible ».
“Anyone in contact with Valentino until Monday is excluded from direct risk”
« This is a second hard blow for our MotoGP operations who had to deal with the absence of project manager Sumi-san and five YMC engineers during the Le Mans race after one member tested positive, although fortunately completely asymptomatic. These two incidents remind us that no matter how careful you are, risk is always present, as we see with the increasing number of infections in Europe currently ».
“We have checked with Italian health authorities and have been informed that any member of our team who was in contact with Valentino until Monday is excluded from direct risk. However, from now on we will be even more careful to minimize the possibility of future problems " finished Lynn Jarvis.
