Rossi addresses Acosta to VR46 rumours, ‘improved feeling’ during test

A ‘happy’ Valentino Rossi finished the Catalunya MotoGP test with an 'improved' feeling aboard his Petronas M1 Yamaha, while traction and accelaration was a key emphasis of the day.

Rossi also tried Yamaha's new brake discs with Austria in mind, along with a different tyre from Michelin as he finished the Catalunya test tenth fastest. 

Although Yamaha didn’t have much in the way of new parts to test, the new ‘brake discs’ that Rossi tried, were the same ones as team-mate Franco Morbidelli tested.

Rossi added: "This Monday's test was not so bad. In the end we don’t have a lot of new stuff from Yamaha. But we worked well on the bike.

"Already from the beginning with just another set of tyre I did the same pace that on Saturday, and after we worked and improved, I’m happy! 

"My pace was not too bad and we improved the setting. We worked on the suspension and it was not so bad, I was quite fast. 

"We tried a different tyre from Michelin, we tried the new brake discs for Austria, big brake discs for Austria, but for the rest, we work on the bike and we try to improve the traction in acceleration and improve the feeling." 

Rumours of Moto3 hotshot Pedro Acosta and where he will ride in 2022 have been doing the rounds lately, including those linking him to Rossi’s VR46 Moto2 squad. 

But while Rossi had great things to say about the young Spaniard, the rumours are ‘not true’ according to the 42 year-old. 

"I read this but it’s not true. For sure we are happy. Pedro Acosta is the new superhero you know," said Rossi.

"But no, I think we will continue with our project, we will continue with our riders from the riders academy I think."