Marco Bezzecchi
Valentino Rossi knew of his MotoGP retirement well in advance of his final British Grand Prix – a MotoGP race he had won eight times.
Rossi claimed his first 500cc victory in Britain, albeit at the Donington Park circuit, which was dropped after the 2009 season.
The Italian rider won just once at Silverstone, which has been a permanent fixture on the calendar since MotoGP added it.
Overall, he competed in 25 British races, and he enjoyed riding there with good support. His final race was in 2021 when he had already confirmed his retirement.
Rossi had ‘weird’ pre-race rituals at Yamaha but most top-level sportsmen have superstitions that they go through every weekend.
Back in 2021, Rossi warned MotoGP of putting riders in a ‘dangerous’ position as he came to the end of his career. He struggled massively throughout the campaign.
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Valentino Rossi was once left ‘very sad’ after he struggled at British Grand Prix farewell
Back in 2021, Rossi’s final season was spent on a slow Yamaha SRT bike after being dropped by the factory team.
His best result of the year and only top-eight finish of the campaign came one race before Silverstone in Austria, as his confidence started to increase again.
And things looked even more promising after qualifying, after managing to line up eighth for the race before plummeting down the field as his tyres melted.
Speaking to Autosport after the race, he was left disappointed with his final showing in Britain, after hoping to deliver more for the fans.
“I started to lose one, two, three seconds a lap. I tried to arrive to the end, but I was very, very slow,” he said.
“It’s a great shame, I’m very sad because I wanted to try to make a good result here because I like the track and it has a good atmosphere with a lot of fans around the track.”
What happened to Valentino Rossi after the 2021 British Grand Prix?
In the next three races after Silverstone, Rossi failed to finish higher than 15th in any race and could not find a fix for his woes on the M1 bike.
He would find a way to finish tenth twice in his final three races after that, giving his fans something small to cheer about.
However, it was probably too late for him by then. There wasn’t much more he could do with the bike at his disposal. Few on the grid could have.
Rossi’s efforts were good enough for 18th in the riders’ championship with just 44 points – the lowest tally of his career by some way.
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