Valentino Rossi: Record breaker.
Valentino Rossi won his seventh MotoGP title on Sunday, marking his ninth world championship victory in all three grand prix classes.
Although he has not yet beaten the outright record for motorcycle grand prix wins or titles (see the 'Valentino Rossi's place in history' story) the 30-year-old has the following long list of records to his name:
o Rossi has won more 500cc/MotoGP races than any other rider in history, with 77 wins.
o Rossi has been on the podium 163 times across all grand prix classes, an all-time record.
Valentino Rossi won his seventh MotoGP title on Sunday, marking his ninth world championship victory in all three grand prix classes.
Although he has not yet beaten the outright record for motorcycle grand prix wins or titles (see the 'Valentino Rossi's place in history' story) the 30-year-old has the following long list of records to his name:
o Rossi has won more 500cc/MotoGP races than any other rider in history, with 77 wins.
o Rossi has been on the podium 163 times across all grand prix classes, an all-time record.
o Rossi equalled the all-time grand prix pole position record of 58, held by Mick Doohan, on Saturday at Sepang.
o Rossi is Yamaha's most successful rider of all-time with 44 race victories on their bikes.
o Rossi is the only rider to have won at least one GP in 14 successive seasons.
o Rossi has never missed a GP since making his debut in the 125cc class at Shah Alam in Malaysia in March 1996. He has started 226 successive GP races across all classes since; 166 of which have been in the premier-class. Both of these are records.
o Rossi and Giacomo Agostini are the only two riders to have won premier-class titles on both two-stroke and four-stroke machinery.
o Rossi's 373 points total in 2008 is the most points ever scored in a single season.
o Rossi is the only rider to win the premier-class title on four different types of motorcycle: 500cc two-stroke Honda, 990cc four-stroke Honda, 990cc four-stroke Yamaha and 800cc four-stroke Yamaha.
o Rossi's 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 (Honda then Yamaha).
o In 2004 Rossi also became only the second rider to win back-to-back premier-class titles on different makes of machinery. Eddie Lawson was the first, winning on a Yamaha in 1988 and a Honda in 1989
o Rossi's eleven wins in 2005 is the highest number of premier-class victories in a single season by a Yamaha rider. Rossi is also the only rider to have scored five successive premier-class victories on a Yamaha.
o Rossi 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.
o Rossi finished on the podium at all 16 races in 2003 (Honda), a record for number of podiums in a single season which he then equalled in 2005 (Yamaha) and 2008 (Yamaha).