Rossi takes BMW M Award and enjoys M3 GTS drive

Rossi sealed the award on Saturday with a fourth place in the last qualifying hour of the year after wrapping up his ninth title just a fortnight ago in Malaysia. Rossi tonight collected a brand new BMW M3 Sedan for his efforts aboard the Yamaha in a MotoGP season that has travelled over 100,000kms from Qatar all the way to Valencia this weekend.

Rossi now has won five BMWs, swelling his garage in Italy to resemble an exhibition! Rossi also had the first taste of a brand new BMW from the illustrious M Power stable in the shape of some fast laps with the brand new BMW M3 GTS which was only announced three days ago. Faster, more agile and weighing less than 1500 kgs, the latest handbuilt M Power car has a 4.4 litre V8 pushing out some stunning 450bhp through it's 7 speed double clutch transmission. The MotoGP legend took to the Valencia track in the lightweight stripped out racer with MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta aboard in the passenger seat, but Rossi didn't stop at the end of his first lap so that he could do another at an even faster speed. The taste of BMW M Power's latest was too good to let go of for even a nine time world champion.

Rossi eventually was taken out of the M3 GTS so that he could be presented with his M3 Sedan, but said, "It was amazing in the GTS. Just amazing. It was great, especially under braking with the light weight that it has." Indeed, Rossi was already enquiring about how he could get hold of one for his personal usage, but there are already over 300 serious enquiries about the car since it's launch three days ago.

Rossi said of his BMW Best Qualifier Award, "One good news of the day is the car even if I didn't qualify on the front row. I'm very happy, but Stoner has won more BMWs than me so maybe I have a target still next year!"

Thomas Schemera, the Director of Sales and Marketing for BMW M Power handed over the keys of the M3 Sedan to the Italian said, "Valentino is the best rider in the world and if you take a look at the whole season, he deserves it. I think the younger riders like Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner will be making it tougher for him to try and win another BMW next season. It was our intention for Valentino to have a seat in the M3 GTS, but in the end he wanted to drive it, so he did! I think he is very convinced about the features and the abilities of the car and we would be very happy to let him have one of the hand built cars that echoes the iconic 3.0 CSL racer from the mid 70s."

BMW will continue to supply Safety Cars, Official Cars and VIP Shuttles to the world's most exciting two-wheeled sport through until 2013 with mouth watering machinery from BMW's M Power stable. The BMW Best Qualifier Award will continue to take place.

Press release courtesy of BMW M