Valentino Rossi autobiography

This 288 page book goes into details of life of Valentino Rossi, one of the best MotoGP racers ever. Autobiography provides inside details of both on-track and off-track life of living motorcycle legend, allowing reader to get better understanding of life and achievement of Valentino Rossi.
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YZR-M1 Valentino Rossi 2008

Diecast model of Valentino Rossi 2008 Yamaha YZR-M1 in scale 1:12 from Minichamps. Get this fantastic bike Rossi rode to 2008 MotoGP title.
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2007-10-13  Phillip Island MotoGP qualifying claims
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Today at Phillip Island we saw mixed success of usual top qualifiers - some were in their standard positions, while others occupied far part of the grid. Read rider impressions after qualifying session, and figure out what went wrong for some of them. Dani Pedrosa - 1st: Well I’m happy to get pole position again and it was a good lap for sure – my best ever lap time at this track so I’m happy. Considering how complicated the sessions have been prior to this afternoon, it’s a relief, that this one went smoothly. We really needed some consistent dry track time and that’s what we got at last. I was able to improve my speed quite a lot from the first qualifying lap to the second one and I think I got just about, the maximum from Michelin’s qualifying tyres, so I’m very pleased. For the race I really hope the weather stays stable. We were on pole position at the last race in Japan but the race-day weather didn’t help us, so I hope tomorrow it’s clear and we can concentrate simply on riding. We’ll be looking at the conditions and temperature tomorrow to make the final choice of race tyre. My pace today on race tyres was quite consistent so hopefully we’re looking okay. The top three riders in the championship are on the front row so it’s set up to be a good battle. I’m looking forward to it. Valentino Rossi - 2nd: Today has been a good day and this afternoon especially we were able to have a very positive practice. This afternoon was the first full hour we’ve had in the dry and we were able to do some very good work on the setting. Now we have a clear idea about what we need to do for tomorrow, because we still have a few things to improve. We also need to make our final tyre choice and this is going to be very important for tomorrow. I’m really happy because today it was great fun to ride my M1 around this track, which I love. I was quite confident with the qualifying tyre and when I saw 29.4 I thought maybe it was enough for the pole, but Pedrosa was even faster. Anyway second is a good result and the important thing is that we’re on the front row. We now need to improve our race pace a little bit more if possible and then I hope for a great race tomorrow. Casey Stoner - 3rd: Qualifying was probably our worse session so far this weekend and the front row or the second row is okay here. We went out quite early with a qualifying tyre because every other session had been interrupted by rain so we thought we'd get in a decent qualifying lap in case the rain started, but the rain never came, so it probably wasn't the best idea as we only had one qualifying tyre left for the end of the session. We felt like we could've gone at least a second quicker than that, unfortunately I got held up by other riders on both of my laps. That last lap Tamada got in my road big time and pretty much blew the lap to pieces, then I made a small mistake that added a few more tenths. Looking at the race tomorrow we're pretty happy, we think we've got a very good setting at the moment and we're happy with our race tyres. We're running pretty hard tyres, like everybody else, and everything's looking really good for us. Nicky Hayden - 4th: That’s by far the best session we’ve had this weekend. Fourth on the grid is not a disaster and if I get a good start I should be okay, though I’d have liked to be on the front row of course. My second qualifying lap was feeling pretty good but the left side of the tyre went off a little bit through the last section and the back of the bike was moving a lot through those last couple of corners – but I held on and was able to get on the second row which is okay. It’s been a big challenge with so little dry track time this weekend for all the teams, tyre technicians, riders – everybody. On race tyres we definitely looked pretty competitive this afternoon so I really hope tomorrow we can have a good result – but I know hoping won’t do it on its own. We’ve got to get back into the garage, work on the machine and keep improving. Hopefully the weather will stay clear and we can put on a good show tomorrow for these die-hard fans who’ve been braving the cold. I’m ready to put up a fight. Loris Capirossi - 5th: I'm happy with fifth fastest because we have worked very well as a team. We used the settings we used during our winter tests here and they are working well. We made good use of the qualifying session to do all the tests that we hadn't been able to do yesterday or this morning due to the rain. I rode a lot of laps this afternoon, 14 or 15 in a row, which helped me to understand what we need to do tomorrow. I have quite a good feeling with the bike, even if conditions aren't the best because it's very cold. I think we can do well tomorrow. Starting from the second row is good enough and if we get a good start we will see what happens. Randy de Puniet - 6th: I'm a little bit disappointed because even just on race tyres, I was very fast. Unfortunately I came across some traffic in T2 on my last run out on qualifiers, and lost some time, so it was impossible to improve my position on the grid. But most importantly we've got a good race setting and tyre for tomorrow; that's why I feel confident. If Anthony and I can fight in the top eight, that would be great for all of us. I like this track, and the bike's working well, so I really hope I can repeat the success of Japan tomorrow. Alex Barros - 7th: Today I'm very happy, because since the morning I have had a good rhythm, riding well in the dry and in the wet. This is my best Qualifying position of the season, and I hope to make a good start and fight with those in the first positions. The wind didn't bother me so much today, but for tomorrow everything is still a little bit up in the air, because we don't know if it will be a wet or dry race.  In any case, I feel like I've got a lot of potential to do well here tomorrow. Shinya Nakano - 8th: I am happy with that! Once more it’s very close, but it’s also very good to be inside the top ten in qualifying again! With the cold conditions it is difficult to choose the tyres here, because if you go for a harder compound it is very difficult to get them warm. We’ve not decided on the race tyre yet – we shall see what the weather has in store for us tomorrow – but our suspension settings have improved a lot. With our qualifying tyres things improved each time and we could cut a lot from our Friday lap-time. We suffered a little with traffic with one of the qualifiers, but this is what happens. Tomorrow I would prefer dry or wet conditions – not in between or us changing bikes, as that makes the race a gamble. I’m ready for both conditions and will hope for a good start. Anthony West - 10th: I thought I was going to be able to put in a faster time on my last qualifying tyre but I nearly lost the front at turn 10. My foot came off the peg as I was trying to save it and nearly went in to the back wheel. It smashed the rear mudguard though, so I was just lucky to stay on the bike. One of those near misses… Anyway, the set up's looking pretty good now: I did about ten laps on a race tyre, and felt quite strong, so as long as no-one else goes too fast it'll be alright! Colin Edwards - 11th: Honestly speaking, I just don’t know exactly what the problem is this weekend, but we can’t seem to get the bike to work how we want it to. We’ve tried all sorts to find a way forward but it’s still feeling nervous and twitchy and just not like the bike I know. I couldn’t get in or out of corners how I wanted today and I was lacking corner speed, so it was really a hard slog. With the qualifier I was a lot better but it still wasn’t enough to push for the top spots. We’ve got some issues and we need to put our heads together to try to pull something out of the bag for tomorrow. We’ll make the most of warm-up and see what we can do. Marco Melandri - 12th: Things didn't go as well in qualifying as they did in free practice. We struggled despite all our hard work and we couldn't fix a vibration problem that is preventing me from pushing as hard as I would like. We've got two solutions to try out in the warm-up tomorrow. The race will depend very much on the weather because it is always so uncertain here. Carlos Checa - 13th: Unfortunately we have not made a lot of progress from yesterday and the main problem is still a lack of front grip, I have little confidence in the fast corners. I have had some long, front-end slides and nearly crashed a couple times. We have some set-up ideas to try in the warm-up and hopefully this will improve things for the race. I like this track and know that in the right conditions I can be much faster, but it is not easy when you do not have a comfortable feeling with the bike. John Hopkins - 14th: That was an awful session and probably the worst for the team all season, it was ridiculous! We did make some improvements this afternoon with the dry setting but we are still nowhere near close to what we want. I am very unhappy with the qualifying position, but I do have high hopes for the race as I know we can get a better set-up than we’ve had today! My crew has worked really hard this weekend and I also need to improve my lines in a few places to make things come together. Phillip Island is just one of those tracks where if you mess up on one corner you mess up the whole track. We have struggled a bit with the wind, but right now we still need to find that bit better set-up for a dry race. We’re confident in the Bridgestone tyres we have chosen for tomorrow and I need to make sure I get a good start and get up to that pack at the front! Chris Vermeulen - 16th: We had the weather against us again today and the first session was a bit wet so we couldn’t really concentrate on what we wanted to get done. We did manage to get the bike set-up for both types of conditions and my guys all did a great job. We have improved the bike a long way today and have also consistently improved lap-times. We still have a long way to go and we especially need to concentrate on improving the corner speed and rear tyre durability. I’m sure we’ll be a bit better for tomorrow and hope we’ll get a dry warm-up to test those things out. I am far from happy with where I qualified and it gives me a lot of work to do right from the start, but I’m up for it and I’ll be giving it everything I’ve got at my home GP! Chaz Davies - 17th: In the Qualifying session, we tried some modifications that we think will make the bike work better for tomorrow's race.  I'm having problems in two corners because they're quite bumpy which is making the front end move around as much as the back and I'm losing a lot of time there.  Also, I'm still not able to take full advantage of the Qualifying Bridgestones.  For the warm-up, I hope to improve some things, since we've changed the bike a bit, and for the race I need to get a good clean start so I can recover positions as quickly as possible. Toni Elias - 18th: It's been a tough weekend. We have a major general problem with the set-up. We've worked really hard with the team to fix it but I've just not been able to get enough feeling to ride with the confidence you need on such a technical circuit. Phillip Island is really fast, probably the fastest circuit on the calendar, so it is imperative to have the right setting. Hopefully we can have a dry race tomorrow and I can get a good start and make up plenty of positions. Kurtis Roberts - 19th: I haven’t been here in ten years so I don’t know if it’s the lines I’m choosing, but getting the thing to hook up and move forward is not going well, that’s plain. The thing is moving around all over the place. The big slides look cool on TV, but looking cool and going fast are different things unfortunately, right now. Things are slowly moving forward, but it hasn’t been the easiest weekend to come to grips with the thing, with the changing weather. If it rains for the race, it’ll help us, but I just want it to be a safe weekend for everybody. It was almost like it was hailing here yesterday. I’ve said all year, it’s not a good thing to have to want it to rain. I have to work harder, and we all have to work to get the thing to go round the race-track better in normal conditions.

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Valentino Rossi t-shirt

Yellow Valentino Rossi t-shirt, featuring sun and moon symbols on sleeves. Made of 100% cotton, VR-46 logo on the chest.
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