2010 Qatar MotoGP – The Doctor VR46, originally uploaded .
Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi, (born February 16, 1979 in Urbino), is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with 9 Grand Prix World Championships to his name. According to Sports Illustrated, Rossi is one of the highest earning sports personalities in the world, having earned an estimated $34 million in 2007.
Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Rossi started racing in Grand Prix in 1996 for Aprilia in the 125cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category with Aprilia and won the 250cc World Championship in 1999. He won the 500cc World Championship with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha, before regaining the title in 2008 and retaining it in 2009.
Rossi is first in all time 500 cc/MotoGP race wins standings, with 78 victories, and second in all time overall wins standings with 104 race wins (behind Giacomo Agostini with 122).
The above picture was taken during the Qatar MotoGP Championship 2010 held at Lusail International Circuit, State of Qatar. Back in 2009, the pole position is taken by Stoner, runner-up by Rossi & 2nd runner up is by Lorenzo. At first Casey Stoner had the lead with no. 1 on starting grid and leading on the first few laps with Rossi seconds trailing behind.. However, coz of the pressure of being the lead, he make a mistake and crash out of the lead just five laps into the race in one of the corners.. Therfore, Valentino Rossi then take the lead and subsequently won the championship..
In Lusail, there is no spectators seating at the corner or other places, they only allowed you to seat at the Grand Stand with the ticket price of QAR100 for 3 days.. quite cheap by the way.. however.. if you want to go into the VIP village.. it will cost you more than QAR3k.. huhuhu.. damn expensive..
The Lusail circuit is 5.4km, making it the third longest in the GP tournament. The longest straight is 1.068km, which should have the racers hitting 330kph! The seventh turn (of a total of 16 curves) – a long sweeper – will allow speeds of up to 250kph, so should be pretty spectacular.
The following pictures are some of the other riders taken on the same day..
