Nine-time world MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi will leave Ducati at the end of this season, the constructor announced on Friday.
“The relationship between Ducati and Valentino Rossi will finish at the end of the 2012 MotoGP championship,” Ducati said in a statement, adding that it sent its “best wishes” to the rider for the future.
Rossi’s future has been the subject of speculation in recent weeks, much of it on whether he would leave Ducati, two years to the day since he joined the Italian outfit.
The 33-year-old rider has also denied rumours that he is going to retire at the end of the season from the sport he has dominated, given that he has been unable to match the championship-winning form that marked his time at Yamaha and Honda.
His last victory was in October 2010 in Malaysia and he is currently eighth in the world championship classification.
On July 28, Ducati announced that it had extended the contract of US rider Nicky Hayden for another season.