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Vinales Confirmed as Valentino Rossi's Teammate at Yamaha

Another day, another big development in the MotoGP rider market. This time, it's official - Maverick Vinales and Suzuki will part ways after the 2016 season ends, official sources inform us. When we started to write this piece, no firm announcement had been made as to where Vinales would go from 2017, but minutes ago things cleared out.
Maverick Vinales is the new Yamaha rider for 20187 and 2018 4 photos
Photo: motogp.com
Maverick VinalesMaverick VinalesMaverick Vinales
With Dani Pedrosa having signed a two-season contract extension with Honda, it was clear that he would not be Valentino Rossi's new teammate as some rumors indicated recently. This situation obviously put Vinales in a straight line for the second Yamaha factory seat, and we have just seen Yamaha announcing the move minutes ago.

Vinales, currently fifth in the MotoGP world standing, is the new Yamaha factory rider in team Movistar Yamaha. The young Spaniard, who is in his second year in the premier class, already has a World Champion title under his belt, in Moto3 in 2013. Also, he won the "Rookie of the Year" award in 2011 (125cc), 2014 (Moto2), and 2015 (MotoGP).

MV25 is also the youngest rider in MotoGP and also has "Rossi's approval." We sort of expected the move, as Rossi confirmed at Le Mans that Movistar, Yamaha's MotoGP title sponsor, was looking for a Spanish rider to join the team, without naming one. Still, with the limited options for such criteria, things were not that hard to guess.

Yamaha and Vinales inked a deal for 2017 and 2018 and it looks like Valentino Rossi will be, in a way, teaching Vinales what he can do to make sure Iwata's future is secured after his retirement. Looking back at how rarely Yamaha changes its riders, we dare say that Vinales will spend many seasons in that seat, especially if he becomes a rider as good as everybody expects.

Being 21 and part of a team as strong as Yamaha, riding the best bike on the grid and with a bright future ahead, we guess that great things will come from this collaboration.
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