Sepang MotoGP: Valentino Rossi vows to finish season

Valentino Rossi has denied he will end his final world championship campaign with Yamaha immediately after this weekend’s Malaysian MotoGP race at Sepang.

Rossi insists he will race on and try and finish the final four races after it was wrongly reported that he would return to Europe next week for surgery on his badly damaged right shoulder.

Some reports in Europe suggested the 31-year-old would miss the forthcoming Australian MotoGP clash at Phillip Island and the Estoril and Valencia races to get his long-running shoulder problem fixed.

But Rossi confirmed in Sepang today that he will definitely participate in the Phillip Island race on October 17.

And he said he had no plans to miss the final two European races, despite the constant pain in his shoulder.

Rossi has struggled with severe tendon damage since April when he injured the shoulder in a motocross training accident.

Rossi said: “I will be in Australia. A lot of people have said to me if you have pain then stop, but I know track-by-track it is a different story and I don’t want to give up.

“If I don’t have a particular problem I will be there for sure because it is one of the best races of the season. The track is fantastic and my team is from Australia. I want to be there. I heard because the people of my fan club don’t have a ticket for Phillip Island that I won’t be there.

“But I can race also without the fan club. If I don’t have a problem with the shoulder that means I can ride then I want to finish the season.”