Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team‘s Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales recently visited some of their fans and the Indonesian media at Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing (YIMM)‘s dealer meeting in Jakarta, with Viñales also paying a visit to Sentul International Circuit.
The event consisted of multiple interviews, meeting competition winners, photoshoots and an onstage 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.
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 Sentul International Circuit, where he got the chance to test the Yamaha All New R15 and the AEROX 155VVA.
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 MotoGP™ test of 2017 in Sepang, Malaysia.
Valentino Rossi: “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: “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.”