We think that Motoblog’s Luca Ruggeri’s comic is self-explanatory.
Thirty year old Valentino Rossi is still a force to be reckoned with and a motorcyle legend.
Here’s a not so brief history and record breaking career of the nine times World Champion.
1) Has 103 wins to his name, 77 in the premier class.
2) 163 podiums in all grand prix classes.
3) With Saturday’s pole postion at Sepang Rossi equalled Mick Doohan’s pole position record of 58.
4) Has never missed a race start since making his debut in 1996.
He has started 226 successive GP races across all classes since; 167 of which have been in the top class.
5) Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini are the only two riders to have won titles on both two stroke and four stroke bikes, and the only rider to have won championship titles on four different types of motorcycles: 500cc two-stroke Honda, 990cc four-stroke Honda, 990cc four-stroke Yamaha and 800cc four-stroke Yamaha.
6) In 2008 Rossi totalled 373 points, the most points ever scored in a single season.
7) Yamaha’s most successful rider of all-time with 44 race victories on their bikes and their only rider that has won five consecutive races.
8) Rossi is the only rider to have won at least one GP in 14 successive seasons and the only rider to have won five or more consecutive races with two different motorcycle marques.
9) Eleven wins in 2005 is the highest number of victories in a single season by a Yamaha rider.
10) Rossi’s win at the 2004 season opener in South Africa made him the first rider to take back to back premier class victories on different makes of bike (Honda then Yamaha).
11) In 2004 Rossi also became only the second rider to win back to back top class titles on different makes.
Eddie Lawson was the first, winning on a Yamaha in 1988 and a Honda in 1989.
12) Rossi finished on the podium at all 16 races in 2003 (Honda), a record equalled in 2005 and 2008 with Yamaha.