Buzzin MotoGP

Valentino Rossi - Wales Rally GB 2008

Valentino Rossi took a huge step towards his ambition of taking up rallying when he eventually retires from Moto GP, impressing Malcolm Wilson, the boss of the Stobart Ford Focus team by coming 12th overall in the Wales Rally GB earlier this month, in appalling weather conditions.

Extreme weather meant that on the opening day of the rally, the competitors had to deal with rain, snow and ice. The weather finally resulting in two of the stages being cancelled. Rossi finished the day in 24th place but happy that his car was undamaged and hoped to make better progress on day two.

The 29-year-old MotoGP rider made up for the disastrous first day by finishing the second day in 11th place and 12th place overall. Rossi said,

“I’m very happy today, firstly to finish the rally and secondly to set some very good times on the four stages today.  The car was fantastic and I was finding it easy to drive when we got a precise setting.

My approach here was to take the race step-by-step and try not to make any mistakes and this worked well.  I think this rally was very difficult and finishing it makes me very happy indeed.”

Rossi made his debut in the world of Rally in 2002 when he entered the WRC Rally Great Britain, in that year unfortunately he crashed out on the second stage.  In 2005 he raced a Subaru Impreza in the Rally of Monza where he has continued to take part every year.

In 2006 it was announced that Rossi would enter the  Rally New Zealand at the end of the GP season in November, driving a Subaru Impreza WRC car.  He won five of the seven stages of the rally and beat the 2005 champion, finishing in 11th place overall. Rossi had planned to drive the Impreza WRC2008 at this rally but instead decided on the Ford Focus WRC, finishing the weekend only 13 minutes 20.4 seconds behind Sebastian Loeb.

Rossi has suggested on several occasions recently, that his future after moto gp, may belong to rallying but until then it will be his moto gp results that count as he looks forward to defending his world championship crown.