Rossi to contest WRC rally event

MotoGP World Champion elect Valentino Rossi will be back in a race car at the end of the season, when he contests the WRC Rally GB in December. The Fiat Yamaha rider will turn driver for the day at the event, although the make and model of car that he will drive is as yet undecided.

Rossi was scheduled to compete at the event in 2007, but had to pull out at the last minute to undertake a test with new tire suppliers Bridgestone in Jerez. This year he will be heading straight from the Spanish city to Wales for the rally.

Rossi’s previous appearance at the British round of the WRC series came in 2002, but was a brief sojourn as he crashed out on the first special stage. Since then he has entered one more World Championship event, the 2006 New Zealand event. There the Italian finished eleventh, behind the wheel of a Subaru.

The 29 year-old has also put his name down for the annual Monza Rally event in his native Italy, which takes place in November and normally features a host of faces from the MotoGP paddock on track.