Petronas Yam🐈aha have endured a difficult start to the 2021 MotoGP season, wi✨th both Valentino Rossi and Franco Morbidelli scoring just four points each. 

It’s also the worsꦯt two race start in terms of results for Rossi during his premier class MotoGP career.🌳 

Rossi's decision regarding continuing beyond this year will very much depend on results, and a reౠturn to Europe might be exactly what the nine-time world champion requi♈res. 

The double header in Qatar saw Rossi finish 12th in race one, and 16th in race two, w🥀hile factor꧙y riders Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo both took a victory each on identical M1 machines. 

While Yamaha struggled at the Algarve International Circuit last year, except for Morbidelli on the 19 spec M🥀1 who finsihed third, Rossi is excited about the challenge. 

"The Portimao circuit is fantastic, it’s something dܫifferent to all of the rest, but onဣ the other side of things, it’s very difficult," said Rossi. 

"It’s a track that yဣou need a lot of time🌊 to learn and every time you race there you can improve on something. 

"We found some new settings on 🐼the bike on the Sunday morning warm-up session of the DohaGP, which meant that I w🧔as able to maintain a better pace but we were hampered for the bad starting position. 

"We hope that we can be stronger at this third GP and be more competitive, but also in Europe as a whole – there are a lꦇot of🍃 tracks there that are good for me."

This Sunday’s race means a secondꦯ opportunity for Yamaha at Portimao to assess whether the perceived improvements made in 2021 are indeed the case. 

Both Vinales and Quartarar⛦o spoke at length during the pre-season and following both Qatar rounds about waiting until a return to Europe, before crowning the new bike better overall than last year. 

And with Rossi, Vinales, and Quartararo all finishing outside the top ten in Portimao last season, we’re sure 𒐪to get an answer come Sunday.