Valentino Rossi, the retired MotoGP legend, has described his many rivalries as “something special” and expressed admiration for everyone of his on-track opponents.
Rossi, a nine-time grand prix motorcycle racing world champion, retired at the end of last month’s Valencia Grand Prix, which marked the end of his 26th season.
Max Biaggi, Sete Gibernau, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, and Marc Marquez were among the riders with whom Rossi had multiple intense rivalries throughout his career.
“The rivalry in all the sport at the top level, maybe notably in MotoGP, is something that you don’t enjoy a lot,” Rossi stated when asked by Autosport about his favorite rivalry.
“But it’s fantastic for giving the maximum and for overtaking your limits and finding something inside that you don’t know that you had.
“I had great, great rivalries in my career, and I enjoyed it a lot, especially the first part because I won more.
“The second part I lost more, but anyway I enjoyed it. I want to say [my favourite] with Biaggi, because it was two Italians. Also, in Italy it was a great movement around it.
“But also with Stoner, Lorenzo, at the end with Marquez, and with all the guys in the last years I always enjoyed. It’s something that after you remember it in a positive way, as something special.”
Stoner expressed his gratitude for everything he learnt racing against Rossi and the “great battles” they had during the Algarve Grand Prix weekend.
Rossi described Stoner as “one of the wildest” riders in MotoGP history when asked about his experience racing him.
“I raced together with Casey during all his career in MotoGP, because it was not very long because he arrived in 2006 and stopped in 2012,” he noted.
“It’s not a long time, but he demonstrated his incredible natural talent and already from the first year with the Honda he was very, very fast always.
“So, I’m very happy to fight with him because he was one of the fastest and wildest MotoGP riders of history.”
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