Valentino Rossi brought the curtain down on a spectacular MotoGP season with a third place in Valencia today, his 16th podium from 18 races in a year which saw him win his eighth world title.

Valentino Rossi brought the curtain down on a spectacular MotoGP season with a third place in Valencia today, his 16th podium from 18 races in a year which saw him win his eighth world title. The 29-year-old Italian has taken nine wins, five seconds and two thirds this year, surpassing the all-time premier class win record and the record for the most points in a season in the process. His outstanding performances this season also helped the Fiat Yamaha Team to secure the Teams’ title and Yamaha the Manufacturers’ title.

Rossi had struggled to find a good set-up for his M1 during yesterday’s qualifying and he started from 10th on the grid. However some last-minute changes paid dividends and he was able to get a good start, climbing to seventh in the first lap and then making a characteristic charge through the field to move into third on lap six. Unfortunately from then on he was unable to make a dent in the gap to second-placed Dani Pedrosa and he had to settle for the final podium position, 12 seconds off winner Casey Stoner.

His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo secured the Rookie of the Year title with eighth place today, rounding off an eventful but impressive season for the 21-year-old. Both riders will be in action tomorrow as work for the 2009 season gets underway immediately with a two-day test at Valencia.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rd Time: +12.194

“I don’t think that was so bad today! Unfortunately we had some problems yesterday and that meant we had to start from the fourth row, which left us with a very difficult task. As always though we found a way and my team gave me a good bike, which meant I was able to get a great start and then have some fun passing people. Once I got to third there was no way to catch Dani and so it wasn’t such an exciting race from then on. This has been an amazing season for us and to finish with another podium, the 16th, is great and we cannot complain. I am so happy with what we have done this year, as I said it’s definitely one of my greatest championships and I want to thank everyone once again – Yamaha, my team, the engineers, Bridgestone and everyone who helped us to get this result. Tomorrow we will try the new bike which means we can’t have as big a party as we would like, but it is important to try to find a base for it so I am looking forward to it.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager

“I think it would have been difficult to have done more than this today, because we were starting from the fourth row and the setting still wasn’t perfect. Anyway it was a great end to the season and we scored another podium, making 16 in total, nine of the them wins. We have the triple crown and this all makes it a fantastic season. Thank you very much to Valentino first of all and then all the engineers in Japan, who have worked so hard, and to all the team members for this huge effort. Luckily we had a big party in Japan because tomorrow we start to think about 2009 and start to test, and it’s going to be important to make the most of it and to give good information to the engineers about the new bike. But we will still have some celebrations tonight so let’s all enjoy ourselves! Thanks again to everybody, it’s been a wonderful season.”

Lorenzo secures Rookie Of The Year at season finale

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo took a deserved Rookie of the Year title by finishing eighth at Valencia today, his fourth position in the championship the highest finish for a premier-class newcomer since the advent of four-stroke MotoGP. The Spaniard’s first season in MotoGP has seen him win a race and take a further five podiums and four pole positions, helping Yamaha to secure the Team and Manufacturers’ titles to add to his team-mate Valentino Rossi’s World Championship. After struggling for grip yesterday Lorenzo started from seventh on the grid and things got worse as the race got underway. He was unable to find a rhythm and slipped to11th until mid-race distance. From then on he began to improve and he was able to make up three places, finishing strongly to set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 8th Time: +35.661

“I feel a bit disappointed with this result today because I really wanted to finish the season with a podium, but in the end we couldn’t manage it here. We had some problems though so I have to be happy that I was able to finish the race strongly, passing people and doing my best lap of the race on the last lap, especially when you consider that yesterday in qualifying I was the slowest on race tyres! The best thing about today is that I am the leading rookie, so I get a trophy all the same and this makes me very proud of my first season in MotoGP with Yamaha. I want to thank all of my team, engineers and everyone who has helped us. I also have to say a special thank you to Michelin for their work this season because this is our last race with them. I am very proud that I was able to win my first MotoGP race with them. Tomorrow we begin straight away to work on the 2009 bike and I am very excited to try it.”

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager

“We expected to finish in a better position for this last race, but unfortunately the problem we had in qualifying persisted, although we were able to improve it somewhat from yesterday. Jorge was able to keep a good pace during the second half of the race and he was able to finish strongly and make his best lap on the very last lap. This has been a fantastic year for us because we were able to make four pole positions, win a race and take five more podiums, helping Yamaha to win the triple crown, and Jorge is the year’s leading rookie. I want to thank Yamaha very much for the huge effort they made in order to give us such a competitive machine, and I also want to thank Michelin for their support – we wish them all the best for the future. Finally thanks to everyone in our team for doing a fantastic job all year and we look forward to coming back even stronger next year.”