Valentino Rossi Rides The Yamaha

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Valentino Rossi had his first laps on the factory Yamaha today at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain, with the first official test of the year for the MotoGP men hampered by wet conditions. And Yamaha has just announced they are packing up and heading to Motorland Circuit in Aragon, Spain, in search of better weather. They will test there tomorrow.

With lap times mostly meaningless, Rossi's best thus far is a 1:43.736, which puts him fifth. The fastest time of the day has been set by Alvaro Bautista, but the Spaniard did his 1:35.936 early when conditions were dry.

Nicky Hayden is seventh with his best lap, like Rossi's, also coming in the wet conditions.

Not everyone has taken to the track with Moto2 World Champion Marc Marquez opting to wait for drier weather before making his debut on the ex-Casey Stoner Honda RC213V. The Honda team has a private test scheduled for later in the month at Sepang in Malaysia. Bradley Smith, the other MotoGP rookie, has also stayed in the garage thus far. Smith will ride the Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha vacated by Andrea Dovizisio, the Italian making his factory Ducati debut today.

Valentino Rossi to launch 'VR46' Moto3 team in 2014

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Valentino Rossi is to start a Moto3 team, running Romano Fenati and possibly half-brother Luca Marini on KTM machinery in 2014.

Rumours that Rossi would become involved in a Moto3 team have been circling for months.

But in August the seven time MotoGP champion insisted the plan was just to start a 'VR46 Riders Academy', to help support young Italian racers, rather than an actual team.

However Italy's SportMediaset reports that the Italian Federation will no longer field the San Carlo-backed Team Italia squad next year, leaving 2012 race winner Fenati in need of a team.

Italy's Sky TV will sponsor the new VR46 project, while KTM machines are also confirmed - and an obvious choice, having won every Moto3 grand prix so far this year.

"We have joined forces with Sky in order to give the Italian riders the opportunity to be competitive and reach the highest levels," said Rossi.

The identity of Fenati's team-mate is not yet known, but Rossi's half-brother Marini is unsurprisingly being tipped as a possibility. Marini - currently second in the Italian Moto3 championship - made his grand prix debut as a wild-card last time at Misano, but fell at the first turn.

Teams wishing to enter next year's Moto2 or Moto3 World Championships submitted their requests at the San Marino Grand Prix. Further details on the 2014 entries will be made available after the next selection meeting at the Malaysian Grand Prix, in October.

However the official MotoGP website has confirmed that the new VR46/Sky team "has already forwarded an official entry application to MotoGP governing body the FIM and commercial rights holder Dorna Sports in order to participate in the Moto3 class."

ORIGINAL POST found on: http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/196127/1/valentino-rossi-to-launch-vr46-moto3-team-in-2014.html

Five-time World Champion Mick Doohan is convinced Valentino Rossi still has a lot to offer in MotoGP.

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Nine-times Champion Rossi is coming off a disappointing 2013 season where he finished third in the standings behind Marc Marques, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.

While his Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo won eight races despite battling injury midway through the season, the Italian's victory at Assen was his only one of the campaign. It has naturally led to question marks over his future not only at Yamaha, especially with his contract running out at the end of 2014, but also in MotoGP.

Doohan is confident Rossi can return to the front if he gets the right machinery, but he concede that the 34-year-old is probably no longer prepared to push himself too hard.

"He can't like not winning although the sport needs him and he has still got as many fans as ever. The sport will be a poorer place without him. I'm sure fourth is not good enough in Valentino's mind, but it is a hell of a lot better than where he was last year," Doohan told motorcyclenews.com.

"I think his experience is against him in terms of how far he is prepared to push himself and how long he wants to stay in the sport. But you never doubt Valentino. I have no doubt if they could get the bike to exactly his liking he could push more but he knows if he pushes any further he will go down the road.

"Valentino's experience though may mean he is not prepared to push as hard as those top three guys. They are still in the 'want and need' part of their careers rather than in the 'it would be great to do that again' part of their careers."