Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) is the most successful current MotoGP™ rider at the TT Circuit Assen, having taken nine victories across all classes. Seven of these have come in MotoGP™, so let's take a look back at them all.
In 2002, the inaugural MotoGP™ season, the then reigning 500cc Champion arrived in Assen having won five of the first six races. 'The Doctor’ would go on to make it five consecutive victories as he stood on the top step of the podium for the first time at the ‘Cathedral’ in the premier class.
In 2004 Rossi was trailing Sete Gibernau by five points in the standings before the Dutch GP, but the Italian was on a roll having won the last two races. An excellent race long duel between the two rivals ensued, with Rossi beating Gibernau to the line by less than 0.5s to draw level on points and swing the championship momentum in his favour.
The 2005 MotoGP™ season was a completely different story. Rossi was quite simply dominating proceedings, with the Italian having won five of the first six races and establishing a 58-point lead over Marco Melandri in the standings. Once again he would emerge victorious, but only after a brilliant battle with Melandri, with The Doctor eventually taking the win by over 1.5s.
In 2007 Rossi found himself playing second fiddle to Casey Stoner on the Ducati. The Australian had taken five victories to Rossi’s two and had opened up a 26-point lead in the standings. Rossi was determined to fight back, and that he did at Assen, beating Stoner to the line by almost 2 seconds in the end.
Rossi’s next victory would come in 2009, when his young teammate Jorge Lorenzo would emerge as a title threat alongside Stoner. When they arrived in Assen, all three were tied on 106 points, with two victories each to their names. In what would be his last MotoGP™ title winning season to date, Rossi would take the race win from Lorenzo with Stoner completing the podium in what would turn out to be a crucial race in the championship battle.
Rossi had to wait four years for his next victory. In 2013 he had re-joined the factory Yamaha team after two years at Ducati and The Docto’ went on to take his first race win since Sepang in 2010 at the Dutch GP. During the race he had to fight off the attention of the impressive young rookie Marc Marquez, who would go on to become the youngest ever premier class champion later that year, and also pole man Cal Crutchlow on the satellite Tech 3 Yamaha.
Then in 2015 Rossi made it a magnificent seven MotoGP™ victories at Assen after an epic duel over the course of the race with Marquez. The two were inseparable during the entirety of the race, and it all came down to the very last chicane on the last lap…the rest, as they say, is history!
Can Rossi make it eight MotoGP™ wins at the 2016 Motul TT Assen? Find out when the on track action kicks off on Friday the 24th of June with Free Practice 1 at 09:55 Local Time.