Valentino Rossi spoke very openly about the 2011 season, specifically about his current teammate Jorge Lorenzo and possible future employment with Ducati. The following is part of his chat with BBC's Suzi Perry from Friday at Valencia:

Labels: MotoGP, Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi answers over 8 minutes of questions during Friday's rider Q&A session to a huge crowd. He talks about his current 50-point lead, Jorge Lorenzo's recent decision to stay with Yamaha, his next book, his relationship with his M1, Isle of Man, the proper age for a World Superbike switch, and more. Wait til you see how much his autographed photo was auctioned off for.

Labels: MotoGP, Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi begins the lap running a defensive line but Jorge Lorenzo squeezes in and dives into turn 1 ahead of Rossi. Rossi attempts to go around the outside but gets the door slammed shut on him heading into turn 2. Rossi outbrakes Lorenzo into turn 4 but runs wide and Jorge stuffs it back up the inside. Rossi ponders a move going into turn 5 but wasn't quite within striking distance. They hold their positions through to turn 9 where Lorenzo gets on the throttle a bit earlier than Rossi and pulls away ever. Rossi catches up on the brakes while skimming the pavement with his foot and tries to go around the outside of Lorenzo on turn 10 but can't quite make it happen and is forced to cut back in. Lorenzo blocks the next 2 turns and looks like he's going to take the win when Rossi suddenly blows past him on the inside of the last turn, catching Lorenzo off guard and the Doctor powers to the checkered flag to take the win by 0.095 seconds.



(Not my video)

Labels: Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP, Valentino Rossi

1280 x 800 | 1680 x 1050

This picture of Valentino Rossi was taken during a [rare] dry session at Indianapolis in 2008 from the inside of turn 6. There's a relatively small break in the fence/wall that offer spectators a rare unobstructed view of the track. Unfortunately, the wall that precedes the opening is high enough to block your view of the incoming rider so unless you've memorized the rider order and/or know the sound of the bikes well enough it's virtually impossible to tell who's coming around the corner until it's "too late". My concern at the time was just trying to get a reasonably sharp picture and this shot just turned out to be one of them.

Equipment used:

• Nikon D200
• Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 OS

Labels: MotoGP, Valentino Rossi, Wallpaper