Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team’s Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales made headlines in Indonesia after a small ‘pre-MotoGP-season media tour’. The riders took time to visit some of their fans and the Indonesian media at Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing (YIMM)’s dealer meeting in Jakarta and Viñales also paid a visit to the Sentul International Circuit.
Jakarta (Indonesia), 23rd January 2017
Following the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team launch in Madrid, Spain, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales headed straight to Indonesia for a quick stop at the Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing (YIMM)‘s dealer meeting, which is one of the biggest assemblies in the world among Yamaha distributors.
The event consisted of multiple interviews, meeting competition winners, photoshoots and an on stage presentation of the Yamaha All New R15, with the riders joined on stage by Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd’s President, Hiroyuki Yanagi.
The unveiling of the All New R15 was an exclusive as the new model is first introduced in Indonesia before being launched globally. During this presentation Rossi got a chance to meet up with Yamaha VR46 Master Camp riders Galang Hendra Pratama and Imanuel Pratna, who spent two training weeks at Rossi‘s Motor Ranch in Italy last summer.
The passion for motorsport, and especially MotoGP, was evident in the enthusiasm of the media present at the dealer meeting and made the riders feel very welcome.
Always enjoying Southeast Asia, Rossi was eager to have a few days off after the event to further experience the region, while Viñales prolonged his tour in Indonesia. The Spaniard went on an excursion to the Sentul International Circuit where he got the chance to test the Yamaha All New R15 and the AEROX 155VVA together with selected VIP customers and Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing’s President Minoru Morimoto. Though reluctant to leave the track, Viñales had to say goodbye to the All New R15 in the afternoon for a final media gathering, where he was showered with presents.
Viñales will now also have a short break before he makes his way to the Philippines to meet up with Rossi again on January 28th for some final media events, ahead of the first official IRTA Pre-season MotoGP test of 2017 in Sepang, Malaysia.
KOUICHI TSUJI
GENERAL MANAGER MOTORSPORTS DIVISION, YMC
As always, when we visit Indonesia, we are impressed with the Indonesian fans who really love motorsport. Yesterday, Valentino and Maverick had attended Yamaha Motor Indonesia‘s Dealer business meeting in Jakarta. It was a special occasion as the Yamaha Factory riders launched the All New R15 in front of Yamaha dealers. Today, Maverick came to the Sentul International Circuit to try the All New R15. It truly was a memorable “One Step Ahead (Semakin di Depan)”-event when Maverick rode as an official Yamaha rider together with the Indonesian fans today.
VALENTINO ROSSI
MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP RIDER
It was a short visit, but it was a great pleasure. The passion from the Indonesian fans and the media‘s interest is always nice to see and a good way to get motivated before the test in Sepang. I again felt very welcome in this fantastic country and I want to thank Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing for organising this trip. It was also great to catch up with Yamaha VR46 Master Camp riders Imanuel and Galang again. It had been a while since we last met and trained together and it‘s great to see that they are still very passionate about racing. It has been a fantastic day at the YIMM dealer meeting and I hope to stay longer the next time I come over, but now I will have a few days off so I can relax and prepare for the test in Sepang and one last media event in the Philippines.
MAVERICK VIÑALES
MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP RIDER
The event in Indonesia was really good. It surprised me how polite the people are here, they made us feel welcome and I‘m very thankful for that. The dealer event was nicely organised and the photoshoot was also fun, so we enjoyed it a lot. Before coming here I hadn‘t realised how big the city of Jakarta is. I felt really happy here and we‘ve had a great time, and especially today I had a lot of fun riding. I was there for the presentation of the All New R15 and I got to ride it on the track. I enjoyed the event a lot and in the afternoon we went to a big media gathering which was fun too, we got many presents so I‘m happy about today. Now I‘ll get some rest and train hard for the Sepang test.