Rossi’s 10 Greatest Victories
10 2015: Qatar GP (Losail)
Ducati came out swinging in 2015 with their first Gigi Dall’Ignadesigned Desmosedici which put Andrea Dovizioso on pole, while Jorge Lorenzo and teammate, Valentino, languished in sixth and eighth.
On Sunday, Vale pulled the rabbit from the hat. Dovizioso, Lorenzo, and Iannone led, with Vale closing fast. ‘When I did a lap alone, a one 55.2, I said, “Wow, not so bad”.’
After trading blows with Dovizioso, he inflicted the coup de grâce on the final lap to beat his fellow Italian by 0.174 seconds. ‘That was one of the best races and one of the best battles,’ he recalls with a grin. ‘My bike was well balanced for the end, but I was close to crashing two or three times.’
Perhaps, he had been lucky: Lorenzo was with them until his helmet liner came adrift, obscuring his vision, while the reigning champion, Marc Márquez, spent the whole race fighting back from a first-corner excursion.
Valentino immediately knew the significance of Márquez’s mistake. ‘I saw him go wide. I knew it was a special moment… a good chance to win.’
09 2006: Italian GP (Mugello)
The 2006 MotoGP season was one of Valentino’s worst at a time when the competition was getting stronger and stronger. When he arrived at Mugello in June, he had taken only one win from the first five races.
