We warmly welcome Vale in the WRT family and I am sure that we are off to a very exciting experience for both.” But with Rossi's longevity and his epic battles on tarmac, he has inspired the next generation of motorbiking superstars, none more so than 2021 MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo.

But based on his comments at a recent media conference, it looks like Rossi could be turning his attention to four wheels. In August, the 42-year-old announced this season would be his last, meaning Sunday's finale in Valencia will mark his farewell.I remember in Australia where he won by 00.1s. Wow - there was almost nothing [between us] and the race was fantastic. I didn't expect to be overtaken on the last lap and I was able to get second by a small margin," he said. Team WRT is the perfect fit I was looking for and I am anxious to start this new adventure in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS with them.” They clashed in 2001 at the opening round in Suzuka, while in Catalunya the same year they had an altercation on the steps leading up to the podium. But for Biaggi, his greatest battle against his countryman came at Phillip Island in Australia in 2001 - a Rossi win that handed him his first premier class title. We had a lot of championships together and we were rivals. We were the same nationality and that makes the rivalry very true," Biaggi told BBC Sport. In 2009, it was the turn of Rossi's Yamaha team-mate, Jorge Lorenzo. The stage was the Catalunya GP, and the championship was on the line - it all came down to the last corner, where Rossi made his move and took the win by less than a tenth of a second.

He is the only rider to have started 400 or more races in the sports' history, and has amassed a total of 115 victories, with 89 coming in MotoGP. He was set to make an appearance in the endurance event until a positive Covid test result ruled him out of this year’s race. It was great, I've enjoyed it very much, it's been a long, long journey and it was really fun," he said.

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One man who knows what it's like to work with Rossi is his former mechanic, Alex Briggs. He was with Rossi from 2000, when he made his debut in the 500cc class, until 2020. He tested with Team WRT in December 2021 and has now finalised a full 10-round campaign with the team. Team WRT is the most successful outfit in the series’ history, securing 28 drivers’ and team titles overall since the 2011 season. It is like you are comparing people with computers, it is like he has a bigger hard drive and bigger memory than the rest of the guys," Briggs told BBC Sport.