Maverick Vinales

Rossi says he has “no problems” with Vinales becoming his new Yamaha team-mate next season as Jorge Lorenzo nears closer to a Ducati move.

For me, no problem. It’s not a big difference if Lorenzo remain, or Vinales come, or also [Andrea] Iannone, or also [Dani] Pedrosa. It’s true for sure that with Vinales will be very hard, because he is very young, and he has a good talent, and I think that he will become one of the top riders of MotoGP very soon. I think that Vinales demonstrated today that he can stay with the top guys for all the season (Vinales was third in Free Practice)…I think he rides so well, he’s a clever rider, and he understands the way to use the MotoGP. So I think him together with his bike, they are growing up a lot.