PICS: Valentino Rossi's 2013 Yamaha MotoGP colours

Updated with Video...

This is the official livery that MotoGP megastar Valentino Rossi will race with during his 2013 return to Yamaha.

Rossi's new colours - alongside those of reigning world champion team-mate Jorge Lorenzo (see separate story) - were unveiled at Jerez on Friday, on the eve of the final official pre-season test at the Spanish circuit.

Without a title sponsor since Fiat left at the end of 2010, Yamaha has again chosen blue-and-white corporate colours for its factory MotoGP team.

The only colour difference between the bikes is that Rossi's M1 features yellow for his #46, while Lorenzo has a red #99, both on a silver backing.

A triple 500cc/MotoGP champion with Honda, Rossi made a shock switch to the beleaguered Yamaha team for 2004.

Rossi won his very first race on Masao Furusawa's heavily-revised YZR-M1 and finished the season as champion. It was Yamaha's first premier-class title since Wayne Rainey in 1992.

Three more title victories followed, plus a symbolic 46 of Rossi's record 79 premier-class wins, before the Italian - aggrieved that team-mate Lorenzo was now his closest title rival - embarked on an ill-fated new challenge at Ducati.

But Rossi rarely looked comfortable on the Desmosedici, claiming just three podiums in two years - prompting his much-anticipated Yamaha return, at the age of 34, this season.

See below for more pictures of Rossi's new colours.

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