Valentino RossiAs the only motorcycle racer in history to lift 125, 250, 500 and MotoGP titles, Valentino Rossi is a nine- time world champion as well as the sole class winner on 500cc, 800cc and 990cc machinery. Following his father’s footsteps, this Italian racer begun his Grand Prix racing in 1996 from Aprilia in the 250cc category. He went ahead to win this category in the following year and there has been no looking back since then. Rossi has a record breaking 80 victories till date in 500cc/ MotoGP races and he is number 2 when it comes to overall wins in the motorbike championship with 106 race wins as of now. Before being a motorbike racer, Rossi was actually interested in kart racing and had also won the regional cart championship in 1990 and kept winning a few in a row in the consecutive years too.

Valentino won back to back championships from the year 2000 till the year 2005. He worked with Honda in his initial years followed by Yamaha and Ducati in the later years. Yet again, it was confirmed that Rossi would join Yamaha for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Motorbike racing was in his genes as Valentino’s father Graziano Rossi was himself a former Grand Prix winner. Valentino won the Italian Sport Production Championship in the year 1994, the Italian 125cc Championship in the year 1995, and also finished third in the 125cc European Championship in the same year. Following these consecutive wins; Valentino secured the chance of making his grand debut in World Championship in the year 1996 at the Malaysian Grand Prix. He helped Yamaha win its first World Championship title for 12 years at the Valencia Grand Prix. When Valentino won the premier- class title on five occasions, he actually became one of the only 5 riders in the history of the sport to do so. Yamaha was actually able to celebrate its 50th Anniversary with its best ever grand prix when Valentino helped the company to win the manufacturers and team titles. The year 2006 proved to be one of the best years in Rossi’s career as he won five pole positions and stood in the podium 10 times; more than any other rider. The following year 2007 proved to be tough despite winning 4 races and several podiums but due to tyre and technical problems, he missed the runner- up spot by just a single point and this year sadly proved to be Rossi’s worst playing year ever since his rookie year in 1996.

Valentino was back with a bang in the following year i.e.; 2008 itself where he won nine races just as his first season with Yamaha in 2004 and recaptured the MotoGP title. 2009 was all the more magnificent where he took his 9th World Championship title and luckily 4th for Yamaha. Ups and downs are a part of each and every sportspersons career but what makes Rossi stand apart is getting up with all the more strength and vigour despite falling down time and again.