Valentino Rossi pinpoints incident when “I’ve never felt pain like that”

Valentino Rossi has noted the incident which caused him the most physical pain.

The Doctor crashed in practice for the 2010 Italian MotoGP, breaking his right leg.

It resulted in him missing a premier class race for the first time. He underwent surgery on the fracture to his right shin and fibula.

“When I broke my leg at Mugello in 2010. I've never felt pain like that, the bone sticking out of the skin, the sensation that a part of your body is detached from the rest,” Rossi told Corriere della Sera.

Valentino Rossi notes 'most dangerous moment'

However it wasn’t the scariest moment of his MotoGP career.

The 2020 near-miss involving Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco was the moment that gave Rossi the most fear, and hastened his decision to retire.

“Morbidelli's motorbike flies past my helmet like a huge crazy bullet,” he said.

“It was the most dangerous moment of my career.

“An accident that accelerated the decision to stop riding motorcycles because it was out of my control.

Rossi is MotoGP’s most famous face, and a nine-time world champion.

“In the morning I wake up, I realise that I am all in one piece, safe and sound, and I am happy,” he said.

“The credit goes to luck, but also to the attention you put into preserving your body, to thinking.

“I remember a lot of precise moments, a prepared and successful overtaking, the intention of a move without knowing if you'll get out of it, the moment that triggers an accident."

Valentino Rossi on Marco Simoncelli

The love for his friend Marco Simoncelli remains strong.

Simoncelli died in 2011 in an accident at the Malaysian MotoGP.

“Man, it just passed his birthday, January 20th,” Rossi said.

“Oh, many thoughts that time softens.

“I say to myself: what a shame not to be close, to see what Sic would have done as a friend and as an adversary, generous as he was.

“It's a regret that remains."