Rossi retirement rumours denied
Added on Tuesday, October 25th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Rossi retirement rumours denied
Valentino Rossi will not quit MotoGP following the tragic death of Marco Simoncelli, his manager has confirmed.
Davide Brivio has dismissed rumours that have circulated over the past 48 hours that Rossi was so upset at being unavoidably caught up in the crash that took the life of Simoncelli in Malaysia on Sunday that may quit MotoGP.
Simoncelli died after a horror crash in the Malaysian Grand Prix, in which his bike slid into the path of Rossi and Yamaha’s Colin Edwards. The race was stopped immediately and later cancelled, with Simoncelli was declared dead shortly afterwards.
Following the incident, rumours spread that a distraught Rossi, a good friend of Simoncelli, was considering quitting the sport but Brivio dismissed any suggestion of the former world champion quitting on his Twitter page.
“This is absolutely not true and I’m sorry even that I have to explain it,” said Brivio.
Rossi was initially too upset to talk about the incident in Sepang but later wrote on Twitter: “Simoncelli for me was like a youngest brother. So strong on the track and so sweet in normal life. I will miss him a lot,” said Rossi.
Meanwhile, Sepang International Circuit chairman Mokhzani Mahathir has confirmed that a full safety investigation will take place following the incident.
“Sepang race organisers have to re-look at safety from every angle again,” he said. “We will see from it (the investigation) if there is anything we could have done differently.”
