Valentino Rossi Gallery

Valentino Rossi (Italian pronunciation: [valenˈtiːno ˈrossi]; born 16 February 1979) is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is considered to be the greatest and one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class.

Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Valentino started racing in Grand Prix in 1996 for Aprilia in the 125cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category with Aprilia and won the 250cc World Championship in 1999. After graduating to the premier class in 2000, he won the 500cc World Championship with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha, before regaining the title in 2008 and retaining it in 2009. He left Yamaha to join Ducati for the 2011 season, but it was confirmed in 2012 that he would rejoin Yamaha for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He suffered two winless seasons while at Ducati.

Rossi came close to winning the 2015 title after several years out of contention, leading the championship for most of the season, only to lose out in the final round to fellow Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo. The end of that season was marred with controversy following Rossi having a coming together on track with Marc Márquez resulting in Márquez crashing, as such Rossi was given a grid penalty for the final round, and accused Márquez of deliberately trying to harm his championship, something Márquez repeatedly denied.Feedback from riders and experts showed a generalized consensus that Márquez's manoeuvres were within the rules, although unsportsmanlike - with Race Director Mike Webb officially acknowledging that there was blame on both sides. Márquez's manoeuvres exasperated Rossi, prompting an illegal response,although Lorenzo eventually stated to the media he was helped by Márquez not making serious moves trying to overtake him.However, the controversial rivalries between Rossi and Márquez was come to an end at the 2016 Catalan Grand Prix, as Rossi started handshake with Márquez at the parc frame.