Valentino Rossi Wins Monza Rally For The Fifth Time

What would you do if you are in a job which demands you to work for nine months in a row and provides you with only three months of holidays? I am sure you would not want to do the same work that you have been doing for those nine months. Well, Valentino Rossi thinks the other way around. His itinerary for a year is to race nine months and win, and then race again only to win more races. However, unlike his regular job, which demands racing a motorcycle, the Doctor enjoys winning rallies too, particularly the Monza Rally. The Italian racer has won it for the record fifth time, becoming the only second racer to do so.

The Monza Rally is basically a rallycross event, which is held on the Autodromo Nationale Monza circuit. The circuit is Rossi’s home track and he has praised it time and again in the Monza GP.

The seven stages of the Monza Rally are made up of different parts of the Monza circuit and its access roads. Out of the seven stages, Rossi has won five, to seal the title ahead of former champion and Le Mans winner Rinaldo Capello. In the process, he was also able to beat former World Rally Champion Didier Auriol, with a lead of seven seconds in the head-to-head Master Show final.

Rossi was driving a Ford Focus WRC and had recently competed in the Rally New Zealand in a privately entered 2005 model Subaru Impreza, finishing eleventh.

About the 2017 MotoGP season, he commented that he and his Yamaha Movistar team are putting everything to bring the motorcycle to its best possible performance. However, his little shots at rallying could hint towards a decent retirement plan. But before that, he will be back on his YZR M1 to try and win another MotoGP championship.