Rossi happy with last podium finish for Yamaha

Added on Monday, November 8th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Valentino Rossi finished his MotoGP career with heavyweights Yamaha on a high this past weekend, bringing home a third place podium finish in the final race of the season.

Rossi came in third behind Casey Stoner, the man he will replace at Ducati next season, and the current MotoGP champion, Jorge Lorenzo, who won his first race ever at the Valencia circuit in the last race of the 2010 season.

The Italian rider had this to say about the final race: “Honestly, I’m happy with this final result with Yamaha because we had a difficult weekend here,” said the Italian. “I didn’t get a good start but I realised straight away that I was much faster today and that my bike felt good.

“At one point I thought I might be able to win but in the later part of the race I just didn’t have enough strength to stay with Lorenzo and Stoner.

“This is a very hard track when you’re not completely fit; I started to make a few mistakes because I didn’t have enough power to stop the bike, so after a bit I decided it was better to slow down and keep my third place.”

Rossi went on to thank his team, who he has been racing with for seven years, and for whom he has collected four World Championship titles, saying: “Finishing on the podium was my way of saying thank you to my bike, to Yamaha and to all the people who have worked with me in these seven seasons. It’s been a great experience and I have enjoyed it so much. 46 is a great number of wins – of course I wanted more but I think I can be happy with what I have done here.

“We have finished the season strongly, with five podiums in a row, and after such a difficult season we can feel happy about how we have ended.

“It’s been a wonderful seven years, great fun with a special atmosphere, many fantastic victories and four World Championships.

“I stopped with my bike after the race today just like I did at Welkom when this story began (2004) – it was the right way to say goodbye to ‘her’.

“Thank you to everyone, we have wonderful memories.”

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