Valentino Rossi Records

If Valentino Rossi wins the MotoGP title this season, it will be his ninth world championship, which will equal the number of world titles achieved by Mike Hailwood and Carlo Ubbiali. The only riders with more world titles are Giacomo Agostini with 15 and Angel Nieto with 13. This will be yet one more achievement to be added to his long list of records, the most notable of which are listed below:

>> Rossi has never missed a GP since making his debut in the 125cc class at Shah Alam in Malaysia in March 1996.

>> Following the Australian Grand Prix he has started 225 successive GP races across all classes; 165 of which have been in the premier-class. Both of these are records.

>> When he won the 500cc world title in 2001 he became only the third rider to win championships in three different classes, after Phil Read (125, 250 and 500) and Mike Hailwood (250, 350 and 500).

>> Rossi and Giacomo Agostini are the only two riders to have won premier-class titles on both 2-stroke and 4-stroke machinery.

>> His win at the 2004 season-opening GP in South Africa made him the first rider to take back-to-back premier- class victories on different makes of bike.

>> In 2004 he became only the second rider to win back-to-back premier-class titles on different makes of machi-nery. Eddie Lawson was the first, winning on a Yamaha in 1988 and a Honda in 1989

>> Rossi is the only rider to have scored five successive premier-class victories on a Yamaha.

>> His eleven wins in 2005 is the highest number of premier-class victories in a single season by a Yamaha rider

>> He is the only rider in history to have won five or more successive races on two different makes of bike.

>> He holds the record for successive premier-class podiums, scoring 23 successive top-three results from the Portuguese GP in 2002 to the South Africa GP in 2004.

>> Rossi had the honour of scoring the 500th victory for Honda when he won the Japanese 500cc GP in April 2001.

>> He finished on the podium at all 16 races in 2003, a record for number of podiums in a single season which he equalled in 2005 and 2008.

>> Rossi's 373 points total in 2008 is the most points ever scored in a single season.

>> He is the only rider to win the premier-class title on four different types of motorcycle: 500cc 2-stroke Honda, 990cc 4-stroke Honda, 990cc 4-stroke Yamaha, 800cc 4-stroke Yamaha.

>> He is Yamaha's most successful rider of all-time with 44 race victories on their bikes.

>> His 77 race victories in the premier-class is more than any other rider in the 61-year history of Grand Prix racing.

>> He is the only rider to have stood on the podium in the premier-class on more than 100 occasions.

>> He has been on the podium 162 times across all classes, which is more than any other rider.

>> Valentino Rossi is the only rider to have won at least one GP in 14 successive seasons.