The top ten MotoGP riders of 2009
Toby Moody gives his verdict on the top ten riders in this year's typically hard-fought MotoGP championship
1. Valentino Rossi
Yamaha
Starts: 17
Poles: 7
Wins: 6
Championship position: 1st
Again, there were times when you thought he was beaten, but then he fought back to be the champion. See his win in Jerez after a duff start to the year, for example. The magic they found to transform an off the pace Saturday bike to a winner on Sunday was truly amazing. Rossi just has the touch required to turn it around, but for how much longer can he keep doing that before the others suss it all out? That is his trick. As Mick Doohan said, 'It's all about experience.'
Although he fell in three races, all his costly disasters seemed to happen at Le Mans, when it was just not his day at all. Everything went wrong, so he didn't waste time worrying about it and just moved on. Far better to have a bad race early on, then you know it is out of the way, unlike Lorenzo whose bad race was three from the end in Australia. Rossi's luck of falling at Donington but still extending his title lead was just that - luck.
Share Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.