Vinales joins Yamaha
Vinales will join Yamaha after the 2016 season ends, replacing Jorge Lorenzo. He will become Rossi’s teammate. Andrea Iannone will replace Vinales at Suzuki.
Rossi would welcome Vinales as teammate
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.