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‘Aku tresno Indonesia’: MotoGP champion Rossi, Vinales spoils fans in meet-and-greet
“Aku tresno Indonesia,” Rossi said, repeating after the event’s master of ceremonies, to fulfill the requests of fans who cheered upon hearing him. Tresno is a popular Javanese word that means “love”.
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MotoGP racers Valentino Rossi (second left) of Monster Energy Yamaha and teammate Maverick Vinales (center) take a picture with fans during a greet-and-meet in Cengkareng, Banten on Tuesday. (Antara/Aditya E.S. Wicaksono)
M
ultiple MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi and his teammate at Monster Energy Yamaha, Maverick Vinales, spoiled their Indonesian fans as they greeted them with local phrases at a meet and greet event in Jakarta on Tuesday.
“Aku tresno Indonesia,” Rossi said, repeating after the event’s master of ceremonies, to fulfill the requests of fans who cheered upon hearing him. Tresno is a popular Javanese word that means “love”.
A three-minute video uploaded on YouTube showed Rossi and Vinales were accompanied by Yamaha Factory Racing managing director Lin Jarvis and the president director of PT Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing (YIMM), Minoru Morimoto.
The event was attended by dozens of racing fans to witness the launch of the Yamaha Racing Indonesia team.
Italian racer Rossi enters his 15th season this month as a racer of Yamaha Factory Racing in the MotoGP class before being replaced by Fabio Quartararo, who is to be Vinales’ partner next year.
“Thank you for the amazing support. It’s always great and fun,” Rossi said.
During the event, Vinales also expressed his love for Indonesia while considering Indonesia as an important country for his career in MotoGP.
The Spaniard admitted he was glad to be able to take the time to travel to Indonesia in the midst his MotoGP pre-season activities.
“Most of my fans are from Indonesia. It’s really special to come here. We’re working our maximum because we want to batter the title,” said Vinales, with a fan in the audience shouting: “Gas pol!”
“We will try to win it. As you said, gas pol,” he threw a fist in the air and the fans cheered in the background. “Gas pol” is Indonesian slang popular among youngsters that means going at full speed.
One of Rossi’s fans, Andika Maulana, said he was beyond happy to meet his idol at the meet-and-greet event.
“The most memorable thing was when Rossi won the 2009 world race. I just hope Rossi can continue [to win] in 2021,” Andika said, as quoted by tempo.co.
Last season, however, Rossi slumped to seventh place, 37 points adrift of Vinales, who finished third.
This season opens in Qatar on March 8. Before the premier race, Rossi and Vinales are to attend the launch of the 2020 MotoGP team in Sepang, Malaysia on Thursday and the pre-season tests on Friday to Sunday. (syk)
