In the ru☂n-up to his first Japanese MotoGP as🐼 a Yamaha rider since 2010, Valentino Rossi was reunited with an old friend at Yamaha's headquarters in Iwata.

The Italian took part in a live talk show with Masao Furusawa, who was put in charge of Yamaha's ✅struggling MotoGP project in 2003, the season before Rossi joined from Honda.

Furusawa and Rossi transformed Yamaha's fortunes, claiming four MotoGP ri๊ders' titles - plus a fifth for Jorge Lorenzo - by the time Furusawa retired at the end of 2010, when Rossi made an ill-fated move to Ducati.

Yamaha completed a perfect sweep ♐of the riders', teams' and constructors' crowns in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Lorenzo then added a further riders' title for the Furusawa-inspired 'big bang' M1 in 2012.

"I was very happy to come back to Yamaha's headquarters in Iwata and to see many 'old' fri♌ends," saiಞd Rossi. "The support is always fantastic so it is a real pleasure to be here again."

Rossi took his sixth podium of the season last 🥃weekend in Australia, and was also third in his most recent Motegi appearance for Yamaha.

"Motegi is a plღace I like a lot, it is a very good track. We will see our potential on Friday morning and of course we will give 100% to do a good performance," he said.

"Everybody expects wet conditions. We haven't 🍃had rain since Le Mans this year. So we have been lucky and it looks like this weekend we will pay. It is interesting. I think I can be competitive with the M1 in the wet..."