Nine-time motorcycling world champion Valentino Rossi said on Wednesday that he was "99 percent" sure he will race in MotoGP next season, despite being replaced in the Yamaha factory team for 2021. The 41-year-old Italian said he will likely ride for Yamaha's satellite outfit. Young Frenchman Fabio Quartararo will take Rossi's place next year. "I want to continue racing and it is almost certain that I will be at Yamaha-Petronas in 2021," Rossi, a seven-time top-class world champion, told Sky Sport Italia. "We are chatting with the guys from the Petronas team. It is not true that I have already signed, we are even far from it. "For now, we are chatting but I can say 99 percent that I will still be on the track next season." Rossi only finished seventh in the riders' standings last season and took the last of his record 89 wins at the 2017 Dutch Grand Prix. The 2020 MotoGP season gets belatedly underway this weekend in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, after the coronavirus lockdown. stt/chc/jc/nr