The Monster Energy Yamaha team has announced that Valentino Rossi will ride at this weekend’s Valencian Grand Prix at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as planned.
The MotoGP squad also confirmed that the nine-time world champion did (as reported this morning by The Race) test positive again for COVID-19 this week, which is what had thrown his participation into doubt.
Rossi underwent the test required to enter the Valencian circuit on Tuesday at home in Italy and returned a positive result “with a very low viral load”, according to the team. He was advised by doctors to take a further test to see what the result was.
Rossi was again tested on Wednesday and on Thursday and tested negative both times, confirming his participation in this weekend’s penultimate race of the 2020 MotoGP season.
The Yamaha rider had tested positive for the illness ahead of the first of two rounds at the Motorland Aragon circuit last month, with MotoGP’s strict protocols meaning that he was therefore unable to ride in either race.
That meant that it was likely that Tuesday’s test was a false positive, something that The Race postulated at this morning while also confirming that Yamaha World Superbike racer Garrett Gerloff was once again on stand-by to step in if he was needed.
