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it's more a battle sport

with the other guys.

I follow the philosophy

of thinking outside the race.

But when you are on the bike,

when you are riding,

it's better not to think and

to act with your instincts.

If you're always thinking

about your competitors,

you don't put your limit

higher and higher.

Today,

if I have to be honest,

it was easier than I expected.

It is very important for me,

because it gives me the confidence

that I can win

two races in a row.

It seems that

he is always happy,

because he is

a really good actor.

He knows how to create this

good feeling with the people,

with the people who

are looking at the TV.

But every human has bad

moments in his life,

and for sure, he was

not very comfortable

when he had been defeated

two races in a row with me

in the same bike.

So for sure, he goes into the Mugello

Grand Prix with some pressure.

Young people are coming,

but how close we are from

Valentino, we don't know.

We will know

at the end of the year.

After six seasons

in the smaller MotoGP classes

and double 250cc

World Championships,

Jorge Lorenzo moved up

to the premier class in 2008.

His debut was nothing

less than astonishing.

A seven-race odyssey

from heaven to hell.

I made pole position in the first

race of my life in MotoGP.

I finished second

in the race.

I repeated with the pole

position in the second race.

I finished third.

And I won the third race,

also in the pole position.

For me, it was so easy

and I was beating all the

riders in my first year.

I didn't understand

why it's so easy.

The China Grand Prix, I didn't

get a good pace suddenly, no?

So, I feel that

I must push.

It was a terrific crash.

I broke two ankles.

The day after, I finished

fourth in the practice.

The day after, I also

finished fourth in the race.

I crashed during the

practice on Le Mans,

the next race

after China.

I crashed, but I didn't fail

this race. I finished second.

But when I crashed in

Montmelo, I got unconscious.

Like a boxer, when...

Yeah.

I didn't remember anything.

Then I realized

what I was doing.

I realized that if I continued

like that, maybe I can die.

So then it comes,

the fear.

Some riders, after big crashes,

they get this fear of the bike

and they never

go fast again.

And they must retire.

Some others...

Maybe I am of this other,

take this disadvantage

and make this an advantage.

He was in here with

concussion for almost a week.

It scared him a bit.

All of us feel fear. The

thing is to overcome it.

Lorenzo had another

huge crash at the US Grand Prix.

He came back to take

two podium finishes

in the second half

of the season,

and finished his first year

in MotoGP in fourth position.

Here, motorcycles are more

important than football.

Here, motorcycles

are number one.

We were hoping

for a great rider,

and we got the greatest.

The miracle of Valentino.

Valentino and his motorcycle

flying towards the stars.

He was tiny when

he first came here,

and he collected

Japanese toy figurines.

He always loved

Japanese things.

He was not a normal child.

At three, he was riding

bikes with Graziano.

Not normal.

Valentino could have

done something else.

But his father led him to it

when he was four years old.

I didn't push him,

you understand?

This happened

without saying.

He was the despair

of the police.

When he races, we all dream. When

he races, everything changes.

I love watching the races.

I had a Lambretta motorcycle.

Number 46,

from my father.

The first race he won,

he had 46, in '79,

the year I was born

so I don't change,

because all the people

know me for the 46.

And it's easy. If you switch on the

television and see, "Ah! 46, Rossi!"

My phone number

is 90-12-46.

Valentino is and always

will be a humble person

from Tavullia, like us.

Except he's a bit special.

We had it specially

printed in Milan.

And we told Valentino,

"You have to unroll it. "

He said, "How long is it?"

Twenty-five meters.

He said, "So long!" We said,

"Don't win so much! "

The most special was the first

podium when he was very small.

He's pulling away

! Victory at last for Valentino Rossi!

Whoa! And he almost swipes

the wall in his delight!

That was the moment

we knew he was a real racer.

It is fantastic for me!

I tried to push very hard.

Push very hard, pushed very hard.

It was very funny. And I win.

Ipushed. Win the

championship with a victory.

I pushed very hard.

We made a very hard fight.

I pushed and I pushed

and I pushed. It's very good.

I'm the second rider in

history to arrive at 100

with Giacomo Agostini.

I'm so happy, but I hope

to have some other season

for increasing the number, and

for a fight with the other guys.

Thanks a lot to everybody.

All his races

are beautiful.

Especially Welkom

when he beat Biaggi.

The first year that

he rode the Yamaha

which Biaggi

said was no good.

In 2003, Rossi's archrival,

Max Biaggi, left Yamaha for Honda,

saying that the Yamaha

was no good

and that he needed a Honda

like Rossi's to win.

Rossi was invincible

on the Honda,

taking three world

championships in a row.

In 2003, he and the other Honda

riders won 15 of the 16 races.

Loris Capirossi won

the 16th on a Ducati.

Biaggi had a point.

Honda was the

most competitive bike.

It was the team where

everybody wanted to be.

And, we as Yamaha, especially during

I started to

manage the MotoGP in 2003.

But our bike and our organization,

everything's very bad.

As a factory team, we didn't

achieve one single podium.

So we've never been

a top three in any race.

So it was a very tough

year, even more tough

was trying to convince Valentino

to join that manufacturer.

I am here to say

thank you very much to Honda

and to say also,

unfortunately,

next year we don't

race together.

A fantastic period for me,

three world championships.

Maybe making this choice at this

point is a little bit crazy.

I thought it was a joke.

But he had some trouble with

the previous manufacturer.

Rossi was winning

world championships

and earning tens of millions

of dollars at Honda.

But he felt like a prisoner,

the prisoner of a company

which held the bike to be

more important than the rider.

The prisoner of PR obligations

and corporate orders.

With the Honda, he knew

he could always win.

But he said, "I'm winning,

but I'm not having fun.

"I prefer to have fun

than win again."

That's important.

Not many people

will leave a sure thing

for something uncertain,

like the Yamaha.

Yamaha offered Rossi

what he wanted, freedom.

All he had to do was show

up and ride the bike

with the added incentive

that everybody knew

that the Yamaha was

an inferior machine.

Everybody

was saying that

he was winning just because

he had the best bike.

Easy to win with that bike,

and he didn't like that.

So, he wanted

to challenge that.

Valentino wanted to show

the reasons of him winning

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