MotoGP News: Valentino Rossi Retires at the End of This Season!

In an interview before the start of the MotoGP round at Staglia, Valentino Rossi himself announced the big news that he would be leaving the MotoGP track after 25 years of racing with his helmet and leather jacket on, after the 2021 MotoGP season.

Born in Italy on February 16, 1979, Rossi joined APRILIA in the 125cc class of the WGP in 1996 and won the 125cc class championship the following year (1997). In 1998, he was promoted to the 250cc class and took second place in the class in the same year. After winning the 250cc class in 1999, he joined HONDA in 2000 to compete in the 500cc class and took second place in the class in the same year, and the next year he won the 500cc class championship and 11 race championships.

In 2002, after WGP was transformed into MotoGP, Rossi once again cooperated with HONDA to win the first GP-level (1000cc) annual championship in history. The following year, he won the second consecutive championship with 9 sub-station championships and a total of 357 points.

Although Rossi switched to YAMAHA in 2004, the changes in the machine did not stop him from winning the championship. He successively won the championship in 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 and other seasons. After transferring to DUCATI in 2011, he won the championship. Ranked 7th, finished 6th in the 2012 season, and then returned to YAMAHA again in 2013.

After rejoining Yamaha in 2013, he placed 4th overall that year, then finished 2nd in 2014 and 2015, and the only season in Rossi's career where he failed to win with over 300 points (the 2015 season was won by Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo). Rossi continued to work with Yamaha for the subsequent 2016 season, finishing 2nd (2016), 5th (2017), 3rd (2018), 7th (2019), and 15th (2020), before moving to Yamaha's satellite team, Petronas Yamaha SRT, at the end of the 2020 season.

Throughout his career, Valentino Rossi has won a total of 65 pole positions, 115 stage wins, 199 podiums in the GP class and 9 world championships in his 25 years of GP racing with APRILIA, HONDA, YAMAHA and DUCATI, creating an unprecedented record.

Unfortunately, the years are getting old. With poor annual rankings in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, only 17 points so far this season, and high age of 42 among active riders, even the experienced Rossi could not resist the passage of time and finally had to announce before the start of this race that he would retire from the driver's seat at the end of the season.

Valentino Rossi Racing Career Record

"Webike Taiwan" Editorial Department-Report by JIMMY