Motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi will switch teams for next season’s MotoGP.

The defending MotoGP champion has announced he will leave Yamaha and race for Ducati next season.

Ducati made the announcement on Sunday, when Rossi finished fifth at the Czech Grand Prix won by Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

Rossi, a seven-time champion at the top level of motorcycling, says it is “very difficult to explain in just a few words what my relationship with Yamaha has been in these past seven years.”

He is currently fifth in the overall standings after missing part of the season because of a broken leg.

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