Yamaha Racing managing director Lin Jarvis has revealed it was Valentino Rossi who made the initial approach regarding a retu🌸rn to the factory's MotoGP ꦯteam for 2013.

After struggling at Ducati since the start of last year, Rossi will♛ re-join Jorge Lorenzo at the official Yamaha team for the next two seasons.

Rossi helped t🐈ransform Yamaha's MotoGP fortunes when he joined as the🔯 reigning triple world champion from Honda at the start of 2004.

However his final seasons saw the relationship sour 🍸slightly as young ♌team-mate Lorenzo grew in strength.

"The reason to have Valentino back with us is the seven years of excellent history we have✤ together," said Jarvis at Brno on Thursd꧂ay.

"We won four titles ♋together, we made great history in the sport and also a lot of positive image for Yamaha. The decision to take Valenꦜtino back is to come back to the good times.

"It was not in my opinion a bad 'divorce' [at the end of 2010] and we ꦇhad remained on good terms.

"I would say there had been some discussion in the background for some time 💧[about a return to Yamaha for 2013♋] and the real negotiations probably began in July.

"Then, as Valentino clarified, he made his deciജsion in the week after Laguna Seca. S𒈔o the final negotiation was quite short, because we know each other well.

"Valentino made the approach to express his interest to return to Yamaha. So the first point of contact came from Valentin☂o's side to Yamaha.

"We informed Jorge at Mugello [mid-July] that there looked like there was 𝄹a possibility to contract Valentino.

"I think Jorge would honestly have p𝕴referred to keep Ben [Spies] as his team-mate, and that was the way we were going as well in our early mid-se✤ason planning.

"But finally Jorge respected Yamaha's𒅌 decision to bring back Valentino a🐲nd it is up to us to manage the situation.

"I ♌can say that Carmelo [Ezpeleta, Dorna CEO] ha🐻d no influence whatever in the entire process. I have never discussed Valentino Rossi's return with Carmelo still to this day.

"We consꦯider Jorge as our priority number one rider for the current championship and coming two seasons. We consider Jorge to be the most capable rider to win the world championship.

"We had a lot of competition from Honda to sign Jorge and we did our m🍸aximum to si🌺gn him. So Jorge is the key for pure results.

"Valentino has an enormous global aware𒁏ness and popularity. There is no doubt he did great things for the Yamaha brand and there is no doubt he can do still do great things for Yamaha and this sport.

"Having Valenti💯no on a competitive motorcycle will be very popular for MotoGP. This sport is going through difficult times and it is not aided by seeing the most popular rider in world down in sixth, seventh or eighth place.

"So seeing Va🌊lentino on a competitive bike - whether Honda, Yamaha or Ducati - will bring benefit to all riders and all teams.

"We signed Jorge and we made our maximum [financial] effort. We will nꦬ🐼ever go into financial situations, but I think Jorge is taken care of very well and we did not have a huge budget remaining for Valentino.

"Jorge has the number one tag because of his current performance and future potential, but we will treat both rider exactl♒y equally.

"During the discussion with Valentino we spoke about the past and I think the situation with the team will be different. Previously, Valentino was the number one and Jorge the arriving youngster. That created🌃 tensions.

🌞"We have explained that we don't want to see any situations [like Motegi 2010] where our riders will bಞe endangering the result of the other. This is always difficult with two strong riders, so I don't say the next two seasons will be easy, but I believe we can manage that.

"Nobody knows how competitive Valentino will be from the start. Jorge has two more years under his belt and is very fast and consistent. Dani is riding superbly. Unfortunately Casey won't💯 be there, but there are a lot of young fast riders.

"My opinion is that Valentino can definitely win races in the firꦡst season. Can he win a tenth grand prix championship? I don't know. Time will tell."

Rossi won four of his se♎ven premier-class titles and a symbolic 46🥂 race wins for Yamaha.