Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi was born in Urbino in February 1979.
He is one of the most titled riders ever and the only one to have won the world championship in 4 different categories: 125, 250, 500 and MotoGP.
Among his records there is also that related to appearances, 228 consecutive.
From a very young age he showed his great talent, from go karts to mini bikes.
At 13 he participated in the Sport Production and Italian GP championships, managing to win the championship of the production derivatives and gaining experience on GP prototypes.
1996 represents Rossi's debut in the world championship, in the 125 class.
He finishes the season in 9th place with a total of 111 points.
The turning point the following year.
Switch to the official Nastro Azzurro Aprilia team, collecting 11 victories and establishing themselves in the ranking with 321 mock points.
After the exceptional results, he decides to switch to 250.
The start is not the best, falling in the first two races of the season.
However, he ranks second, only 23 points behind Capirossi.
As in 125, the following year led him to victory, collecting 9 victories, graduating winner of the 250 class as the only official driver of the Aprilia Grand Prix Racing team.
New millennium, new stable, new class.
He lands in the top category (500) on the Honda, convincing the Japanese manufacturer to have the assistance of the technician Jeremy Burgess, previously in the service of the champion Mick Doohan.
He is runner-up, second only to Kenny Roberts JR, with two wins, three second places and five thirds.
In 2001, the last season before the replacement of this class with the MotoGP, he won the world with 11 victories and imposed himself in the Suzuka 8 hours with his teammate and current SBK driver Colin Edwards.
The 2002 World Championship was the first of the new MotoGP class, characterized by the new 990 cm³ four-stroke engines. Rossi, driving the new five-cylinder RC211V, scored 11 wins (Japan, Spain, France, Italy, Catalonia, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Brazil and Australia), four second places (South Africa, the Pacific, Malaysia and Valencian Community), seven pole positions (Japan, South Africa, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain) and 355 championship points, which allow him to win the fourth world title.
In 2003 he confirmed himself as champion on the Honda saddle for the last time, in fact he moved to Yamaha in 2004, signing a contract worth 12 million net, followed by all the most representative members of his team. He is contacted by high-caliber sponsors, among the many Telecom Italia with 3 million additional collections.
His extraordinary power is confirmed in the 2004 and 2005 vintages, where he wins the maximum competition with disarming ease.
The 2006 season does not start in the best way, in fact at the first race, on the Jerez circuit, it falls on the first lap and closes in 14th place. In China he is forced to retire due to rear tire problems, while in France due to engine failure.
The sixth consecutive title is taken from him by Hayden, winner with Honda.
2007 sees Rossi protagonist of an unfortunate accident which added to a not very bright season and to a "Martian" Stoner, prevents him from winning the title, won in fact, by an Australian in super dusting that brings an Italian bike to the world championship after more than 30 years old.
on September 14, 2008 the bikes compete for the first time, Rossi wins the victory that allows him to overcome, with 69 victories between 500 and MotoGP, the absolute record previously held by Giacomo Agostini. At Motegi, with three races ahead of the end of the championship, he returns to graduate world champion, reaching 8 world titles: 1 in 125, 1 in 250 and 6 between 500 and MotoGP.
On October 25, 2009, after winning his ninth world title, Rossi equaled Carlo Ubbiali and Mike Hailwood, achieving fewer world titles than those won by Giacomo Agostini and Ángel Nieto. The season ends with the place of honor behind Pedrosa in the Valencian Community Grand Prix, in front of his teammate.
2010, in the new Grand Prix of Aragon, disputed in place of the Hungarian race, comes sixth. In the following race, the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi, Rossi, after a close duel with Lorenzo, managed to climb the lowest step of the podium, while the following week in Malaysia, he returned to winning, preceding Dovizioso and Lorenzo, who graduated from the finish. mathematically world champion.
The highly anticipated official announcement of the transfer of the Tavullia centaur from Yamaha to Ducati for the 2011 and 2012 seasons was given in the post-race of the 2010 Czech Republic GP, but during this two-year period, by far the darkest of his career, he does not get any victory, collecting four retreats and only three podiums.
According to statements following this disappointing period, the problem was related to the vehicle, which did not allow it to be driven in a way that was up to the other motorcycles, in fact often causing the Ducati riders to come across sudden closings of the front axle, with consequent falls sometimes particularly risky; for Rossi, as well as for teammate Nicky Hayden, the Desmosedici is difficult to manage, especially in relation to the front wheel, and forces them to follow very wide lines in curves, thus losing ground and precious time in terms of race.
After the colorless two-year period in Ducati, for the 2013 season Rossi decides to return to Yamaha, where he goes back to team up with the Spanish Lorenzo, reigning champion. On his seasonal debut on April 7 in Qatar, Rossi took second place just behind his teammate, and ahead of rookie Márquez.
Rossi concludes the 2013 season by taking yet another fourth place in Valencia: this is also the final position with which the rider from Pesaro finishes the drivers' championship, at 237 points in the standings; the placement reflects the overall trend of the season, with Rossi often far from the fight at the top by the Spanish trio Lorenzo-Márquez-Pedrosa.
2014 sees him second in the standings exactly like 2015, just 5 points from teammate Lorenzo. Result accompanied by a thousand controversies on Marquez's attitude and by the controversies between the two drivers.
During his twenty-year motorcycle career Rossi has had the opportunity to come across two different generations of riders, a circumstance that led him to cross the handlebars with a fair number of opponents giving rise to various and mutual rivalries, sometimes simply on a sporting level, others times pushed on a personal level.
During the first part of his career, at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, Valentino often found himself battling on the track with his compatriots Loris Capirossi and Max Biaggi, forming a trio of drivers at the time at the top of the discipline: «the three musketeers », As the national press will nickname them, will give rise to a rivalry that culminates in the 2001 season, when the trio monopolizes the first three places of the 500 Class, and with Rossi to seize his first title in the premier class.
Valentino Rossi, considered by many to be the strongest and most talented driver ever, is still writing his story, to reach new records and establish himself again, world champion.
