Rossi pays tribute to victims of Italy's earthquake

Valentino Rossi showed his support for the victims of Italy’s recent devastating earthquake at the opening MotoGP race in Qatar.

The 30-year-old carried a special sticker on his factory Yamaha YZR-M1 machine that said ‘Forze Abruzzo’ in memory of over 200 people killed in the earthquake.

Ducati rookies Niccolo Canepa and Mika Kallio also carried stickers of support on the fairing of their GP9 machines. 

Rossi, who lives in Tavullia, said: “I luckily stay on the ground floor but my friends who lives on the third floor felt the earthquake. The worst thing is you can’t do anything to help. It is so terrible to see so many people who in just a few minutes lose everything.

“So many people don’t even have a home anymore. It is not possible to give them all a big hug, but now we are talking about doing something and seeing what we can do.”

A minutes silence was held on the grid prior to Sunday night’s 22-lap race in honour of the quake victims.