Valencia: After a glittering 26 year span of throttling around the circuits, picking up nine world titles, Valentino Rossi – arguably the most successful MotoGP racer of his generation put brakes on his career after finishing his race at 10th in the Valencia GP at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit on Sunday.
Although Pecco Bagnaia of factory Ducati won the race and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo lifted the World Champions, it was Rossi who captured everyone’s attention as all the riders went to him congratulating and even Footballing legend Ronaldo of Brazil came to see him before the start of the race.
Italian, 42 had signed a one-season deal with Yamaha-SRT for this season and came out of nowhere to announce his decision ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix at Austria’s Red Bull Ring a couple of months ago.
“The Doctor” as he is famously known is considered as one of the greatest Motorcycle racers in history with 9 World Titles and one of the most iconic sportspersons in the world having clinched 115 Grand Prix victories , 89 of those in the premier class alongside 235 podium finishes riding in an all-time record 400 races.
Valentino’s influence on Moto GP is like What Roger Federer’s on Tennis taking the overall perspective of the Sport to new heights popularising on a different dimension. Seven of the his nine World Championships came in the Premier Class illustrating the highlights of his career which started back in 1996 when he made his debut in the 125cc class with Italian manufacturer Aprilia. A year later he was crowned the champion in 1997 in that category, then progressing to the 250cc class in 1998, again winning the championship in the division the following year.
His Premier Class debut came in 2000 when signed for Honda winning the first of his seven Moto GP world titles in 2001, repeating it in 2002 and 2003. Then came the defining stint with the Yamaha factory team with whom Rossi claimed 4 more world titles (2004,2005,2008,2009) while finishing runners up four times riding the famous YZR-M1.
His on track rivalry with the likes of Jorge Lorenzo,Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner lit up the sports perspective all around world making it stand-out among every other sport.
His legacy was such that fans around the put The Iconic number “46” on their bikes which will surely be missed from the next year. The Italian though might stay at the grid but on a different role as per reports of joining his own Sky Racing VR46 team as a part of the coaching and management.
