Valentino Rossi reluctant for off track fight with Jorge Lorenzo

Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi is hoping his MotoGP title fight with Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo doesn’t spill over into a bitter off-track scrap.

Despite some fierce on-track battles in 2009, Rossi and Lorenzo’s rivalry has not yet turned into a bitter of words.

And 30-year-old Rossi is hoping to keep it that way as he looks to build on a 25-point lead over the Spaniard when the MotoGP campaign resumes again in Brno next weekend.

Rossi, who won thrilling clashes with Lorenzo in Catalunya and Sachsenring, told MCN: “After the Sachsenring in one Italian newspaper it was written that I said that Jorge was presumptuous but it was not true. One journalist said this to me but I did not say this, but the next day they publish that I said Jorge is an arsehole. I hope the fight doesn’t go out of the track and remains good for the sport.”

Rossi is no stranger to waging a bitter war both and off the track after his famous clashes with Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau.