Valencia MotoGP: Yamaha poised to confirm Bridgestone deal for Valentino Rossi

Yamaha is expected to officially confirm today in Valencia that Valentino Rossi will ditch Michelin tyres and race on Bridgestone rubber in the 2008 MotoGP world championship.

In a deal largely orchestrated by Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta, Rossi will be confirmed as the lone Yamaha rider on Bridgestone tyres next season, with Fiat team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on Michelin rubber.

Yamaha boss Masao Furusawa strongly hinted at a special technical briefing of the 2007 YZR-M1 last night in the Valencia paddock that as expected, Rossi would be on Bridgestone’s in a move exclusively revealed by MCN last month in Phillip Island.
MCN understands the deal will be confirmed after this afternoon’s 30-lap Valencia GP.

In another twist to the long-running saga, Michelin were to block Rossi from testing Bridgestone tyres until a three-day test session in Jerez later this month.
That was to be the earliest opportunity the Fiat Yamaha rider would get to assess Bridgestone rubber, with Michelin refusing to release him from a contract to begin testing on Tuesday in Valencia.

But the situation has become largely irrelevant with Rossi’s broken right hand meaning he wouldn’t have been able to test in Valencia anyway, and most likely he wouldn’t have recovered in time to test in Sepang on November 15. He suffered three fractures in his right hand after a huge qualifying crash yesterday afternoon.
Yamaha’s contract with Michelin doesn’t expire until the end of the month, and discussions have been on going about an early release for Rossi to let him test in Valencia and then in a three-day session in Malaysia.

But furious at the scathing criticism from Rossi in 2007, Michelin was to block Rossi from making an immediate switch to rivals Bridgestone after tomorrow’s Valencia GP.
Yamaha bosses submitted a formal request to Michelin to get Rossi released. That was turned down, meaning that Rossi would not have been able to test Bridgestone tyres for the first time until 2008 in a test in Malaysia when the seven-week testing ban ends on January 20.

A compromise was to let Rossi make his Bridgestone debut in Jerez at the end of November, which is the reason why he announced on Thursday that he was unable to participate in the Rally of Great Britain. He had initially been cleared by Yamaha to drive a Subaru, but was then asked to withdraw from the rally to attend the Jerez test, which takes place at the same time.

The situation is nothing new for the 28-year-old Italian. When he agreed to join Yamaha at the end of 2003, Honda blocked him from testing the YZR-M1 until January 2004.