Max Verstappen confirmed to race against Valentino Rossi for first time ever in historic announcement

Racing fans are in for an absolute treat the next time F1 takes a week off, with Max Verstappen set to face off against one of the greatest racers of all time.

The Dutchman may never have imagined racing against seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi when he was growing up (although he has talked about his love for the two-wheeled series before), but the pair will share the track in just two weeks time.

This won't be some weird hybrid bike/car exhibition race though because, as fans who have been paying attention will know, Rossi is a sports car racer now – running in the World Endurance Championship for a couple of seasons before dropping that to focus on GT car racing.

Funnily enough, he's now racing in the same GT World Challenge Europe series that Verstappen will be debuting in at Portimao in the weekend between the Singapore and US Grands Prix.

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Busy seven weeks for Verstappen

"It’s going to be a busy seven weeks," Verstappen admitted during Thursday's FIA press conference in Malaysia.

Initially, he hadn’t planned to compete, but with two of his Team Verstappen's regular drivers - Jules Gournon and Dani Juncadella - absent due to the WEC race in Barcelona, he will step in to fill the gap.

"Of course," he said, "I would have preferred that they could race, but the schedule has been reshuffled. That meant two new drivers had to get involved. Either way, I'm looking forward to it. We're going to try to make it a great weekend."

Indeed, the Dutchman's schedule is packed. F1 is currently on the second leg of a triple-header across Azerbaijan, Malaysia, and Singapore and, after a single race-free weekend, another triple-header looms. During that break, Verstappen will join his GT team for his racing stint.

The Dutchman is expected to jump back to GT endurance racing next year too, with the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the 24 Hours of Spa both marked on his calendar after he was robbed of a possible debut win in the former this summer by a technical issue.

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