It is with great pleasure that Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd confirms the
signing of Valentino Rossi to ride for the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP
Team for 2013 and 2014.

Valentino Rossi first joined Yamaha in 2004 and achieved four MotoGP
World Champion titles with the Yamaha YZR-M1 in 2004 & 2005 and again in
2008 & 2009. He won 46 Grand Prix races with Yamaha over a 7 year period
before leaving at the end of the 2010 MotoGP season.

Rossi, who is presently 8th in the Championship standings, will partner
Jorge Lorenzo who currently leads the 2012 MotoGP World Championship by
23 points, having taken five victories from the first ten completed
races of the 18 race series.

Lin Jarvis

Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Racing

This announcement is once again excellent news for Yamaha. In June we
were able to sign Jorge Lorenzo for the 2013-14 campaign and now we are
able to confirm Valentino Rossi for the next two years. In doing so we
have been able to put together the strongest possible team to challenge
for victories and to promote the Yamaha brand.

We have run this super team together in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and during
that time we achieved the triple crown titles with Rider, Manufacturer
and Team World Championship victories for three consecutive years.

The target for the future is obvious and we will do our utmost to
achieve our goals.

I have no doubt that with the experience, knowledge, skills and speed of
these two great champion riders we will be able to challenge for many
race wins and for the 2013 & 2014 World Championship titles.