Mythical commentator Nick Harris has these facts, statistics, and curiosities about Valentino Rossi’s career. released on his blog:
Rossi and Phil Read are the only drivers to have won world titles in the 125, 250 and 500cc classes. (Note: Marquez has won 125cc, Moto2 and MotoGP titles)
Valentino Rossi is the only rider to have won world championships in four classes: 125, 250, 500 and MotoGP.
Rossi and Giacomo Agostini are the only two drivers who have won premier class titles on both 2-stroke and 4-stroke machines.
His victory at the 2004 season opening GP in South Africa made him the first rider to achieve successive victories in the premier class on various motorcycle brands.
In 2004 he was only the second driver to win consecutive titles in the premier class on different makes of machinery. Eddie Lawson was the first Won in 1988 on a Yamaha and 1989 on a Honda.
He holds the record for consecutive podiums in the premier class and has achieved 23 consecutive top-3 results from the GP of Portugal in 2002 to the GP of South Africa in 2004.
Rossi had the honor to score the 500th victory for Honda when he won the Japanese 500cc GP in April 2001.
He is the only rider to win the premier class title on four different types of motorcycles: 500 cc 2-stroke Honda, 990 cc 4-stroke Honda, 990 cc 4-stroke Yamaha, 800 cc 4-stroke Yamaha.
Rossi has won GP races on seven different motorcycles: 125cc Aprilia, 250cc Aprilia, 500cc Honda, 990cc Honda, 990cc Yamaha, 800cc Yamaha and 1000cc Yamaha.
His eleven wins in 2005 are the highest number of premier class wins in a single season for a Yamaha rider
He is the only rider to have won five or more consecutive premier class races on a Yamaha.
He is the only rider in history to have won five or more races in a row on two different motorcycle brands (Yamaha and Honda).
With 56 race victories on their motorcycles, he is the most successful Yamaha rider of all time.
His 89 racing victories in the premier class are more than any other driver in Grand Prix racing history (second on this list is Giacomo Agostini with 68 wins in the premier class).
He has won 115 GP races in the three classes. Just Giacomo Agostini with 122 wins was more on the top step of the podium in the Grand Prix race.
Valentino Rossi’s third place in Jerez in 2020 was the 199th time he had stood on the podium in the premier class, more than any other driver (second on this list is Jorge Lorenzo with 114 podium places in the premier class).
He was on the podium 235 times in all classes, that’s more than any other driver in Grand Prix racing history (second on this list is Giacomo Agostini with 159 Grand Prix podiums).
The Valencia GP will be Rossi’s 432nd Grand Prix start. He has thus participated in 44.4% of all Grand Prix events that have taken place since the start of the World Cup series in 1949. (The driver with the second most GP starts is Andrea Dovizioso with 332 by the end of 2021).
Rossi’s total number of GP starts in the premier class is 372 including the race in Valencia; that’s more than any other driver (second on the list is Alex Barros with 245 GP starts in the premier class).
Rossi has the longest career to win in the premier class of GP racing, with his last win at the Dutch TT in 2017, 16 years 351 days after his first 500cc GP win at Donington in 2000 (the rider with the second longest winning career in the premier class is Alex Barros – 11 years 204 days).
He also has the longest victorious GP career in any class; 20 years 311 days between his first GP victory in the 125cc class in Brno in 1997 and his last GP victory in Assen in 2017 (second in this regard is Loris Capirossi with a GP career of 17 years and 49 days).
During his career, Rossi has participated in competitions 38 different Grand Prix tracks.
Of these 38 routes, he clinched at least one GP victory on 29 routes. No other rider in the history of motorcycle Grand Prix racing has won on so many different tracks as Rossi.
The circuits where Rossi has taken the most GP victories are Catalonia and waves where he has won ten times on each of these two routes.
In the premier class, Rossi competed on 29 different tracks.
He won the premier class on 23 of these 29 racetracks.
The track where Rossi has scored the most wins in the premier class is Assen with eight.
The circuit on which Rossi has completed the most Grand Prix participations is Jerez, where he has made 27 GP starts in all three classes, including 23 in the premier class.
During his Grand Prix career Rossi shared the podium with 55 different drivers. The driver with whom he finished on the podium most often is Jorge Lorenzo – 53 times.
In the premier class, Rossi shared the podium with 38 different drivers.
The last time Rossi shared a podium with a driver older than himself was in the 2008 Czech Grand Prix, that driver was Loris Capirossi.
With Valencia being Valentino Rossi’s last race, it will very likely be the last time a driver born in the 1970s will start a Grand Prix race.
There are three riders with whom Rossi has shared a premier class podium without standing on a higher step: Alex Rins, Fabio Quartararo and Stefan Bradl.
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