PIC: Rossi's Yamaha unveiled

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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