Rossi takes top billing at Goodwood

Valentino Rossi was the biggest draw of the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Sunday.

After a stunning race at the TT Assen Circuit on Saturday, where Valentino Rossi won his third race this season, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider made his first ever appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which carried a theme of nostalgia and pride in the growing interest in motorsport.

The nine-time World Champion was specially invited by Lord March to make his debut at this famous event as a guest star. Rossi traveled straight from the Dutch GP to the UK to be able to attend the event, where he was accompanied by Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd Executive Vice President, Takaaki Kimura, Yamaha Motor Europe N.V President, Kazuhiro Kuwata, YMC Motorsports Division’s General Manager, Kouichi Tsuji and Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director, Lin Jarvis.

Sunday kicked off with Rossi, Lord March, Kimura-san, Kuwata-san, Tsuji-san and Jarvis revealing the Doctor‘s Yamaha YZR-M1, equipped with a special livery, in Yamaha‘s display area in the F1 Paddock. The yellow and retro styled bike commemorates Yamaha Motor‘s 60th anniversary and the ceremony was completed by motorsport legends Kenny Roberts, Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read taking part in this celebration of Yamaha‘s supreme racing heritage.

Rossi‘s yellow bike was in good company at the Yamaha exhibition; other iconic show bikes on display were Phil Read‘s 1965 RD56, Giacomo Agostini‘s 1975 YZR500 OW23 and Kenny Roberts‘s 1978 YZR750 OW31.

The unveiling of Rossi‘s bike was followed by the Doctor delighting thousands of spectators when he rode up and down the 1.16-mile Hillclimb in the yellow livery at 11:40 am. The special colour scheme of his YZR-M1 was similar to the one he and Colin Edwards sported ten years ago when they marked Yamaha‘s 50th anniversary at the Raceway Laguna Seca with a double podium.

The Italian concluded his first Goodwood experience by honouring this year‘s theme of the Goodwoord event, ’Flat-Out and Fearless: Racing on the Edge‘. He fully enjoyed riding in a historical Le Mans-winner as well as a rally car, before heading home to prepare himself for the Grand Prix in Germany, to be held in two weeks‘ time.