After clinching the title in race 15 of 16 in the series, Rossi put the icing on the cake by picking up an incredible ninth win in the final event at the Valencia Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain on October 31. Down in sixth after a tricky start, Rossi used his improving pace to good effect, ultimately winning by a margin of 0.425 seconds. Rossi broke through the three hundred point barrier with his Valencia victory, scoring a total of 304, despite two non-finishes this year.

Aside from Rossi, in the 55-year history of Grand Prix racing only three riders, Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan and Mike Hailwood have won four or more consecutive premier class titles. Only six riders before Rossi have scaled the heights of taking four premier class titles throughout their entire careers.

Comments From The Team
When asked about his Championship victory after the race at Phillip Island, Rossi said, "Today was a fantastic finish to a fantastic championship. This track is great and today there was a hard battle up until the last lap.

Davide Brivio, Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha team director - "This is like a dream come true for us all. Like a movie with the best-ever storyline. If we wrote a script it could not have been better or more exciting. It was a hard job for all our engineers and Yamaha took a big commitment supporting Valentino in this challenge. This was also a big motivation for everyone and our engineers were obviously just waiting for the opportunity to show what they can do."

Jeremy Burgess, Valentino Rossi's crew chief - "The target was the championship and we've got it. I think we always expect to win but you have to win enough races to win a championship. We approached it one race at a time and it has been a very good year."