MotoGP: Luca Marini unveils first-ever SKY Racing Team VR46 MotoGP bike

Luca Marini has unveiled the first-ever SKY Racing Team VR46 MotoGP livery in a special presentation aired on the Italian X Factor final.

Marini will ride a VR46-branded Esponsorama Ducati in 2021 as he makes his debut in the premier class. It's the first time that the famous black, blue and yellow colours of the Team VR46 squad will be present in MotoGP.

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The Italian finished second in this year's Moto2 championship, with his new Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini beating him by just nine points. The VR46 team did however win the Team's Championship. Bastianini will run the standard Esponsorama Ducati livery.

Rumours of a full premier class VR46 team effort in 2022 will now intensify, and Valentino Rossi's has even been linked with a takeover of the Esponsorama team completely - although nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

The VR46 team was created in 2014 in the Moto3 class, adding Moto2 to its portfolio in 2017. Francesco Bagnaia clinched the team's first riders' title (Moto2) in 2018.

It'll be the first time that Marini and Rossi, who are half-brothers, have raced against each other competitively. The promotion for Marini means that there will be three VR46 Academy racers going head-to-head with Rossi next year. Bagnaia and Franco Morbidelli are also members.

The team's 2021 Moto2 riders, Marco Bezzecchi and Celestino Vietti, who is promoted from Moto3, were also present in the live presentation, which was streamed from the VR46 Riders Academy headquarters in Tavullia, Italy.

WITH U, Monster Energy and Bardahl will continue to be the main sponsors which appear on the team's liveries.