page_title: Valentino Rossi
section_title: Yamaha (2004–2010)
hierarchical_section_title: Valentino Rossi / Career / MotoGP World Championship / Yamaha (2004–2010)
caption_attribution_description: English: Yamaha YZR-M1 (2004 OWP3, Valentino Rossi) 日本語: ヤマハYZR-M1（2004年バレンティーノ・ロッシのマシン） ヤマハコミュニケーションプラザにて撮影
context_page_description: Valentino Rossi is an Italian professional motorcycle road racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion.
  Rossi is widely considered one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class. Rossi is also the only road racer to have competed in 400 or more Grands Prix. He has ridden with number 46 his entire career, including the years when he was defending his title.
  After graduating to the premier class in 2000, Rossi won the 500cc World Championship and 8 Hours of Suzuka with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships in 2002 and 2003 and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha. All of those titles were won in a dominant manner, being decided before the final round on all occasions. He lost the 2006 title with a crash in the final round at Valencia, ceding the title to his former Honda teammate Nicky Hayden. In 2007 Rossi and Yamaha were of no match to a dominant Casey Stoner on a Ducati, and Rossi ultimately finished a then career-low third overall.
context_section_description: 2004
  Rossi made the switch from Honda to Yamaha and signed a two-year contract with the team. Many doubted his move and would expect Biaggi, who joined the Honda Pons team a year earlier, as well as Gibernau to be genuine contenders for the title this year.
  With the traditional first venue of the season at Suzuka having been taken off the calendar due to safety concerns following the fatal accident of Daijiro Kato last year, the 2004 season started at Welkom in South Africa. Rossi took the pole on Saturday and won the South African race after a hard-fought battle with Max Biaggi, becoming the first ever rider to win consecutive races with different manufacturers, having won the final race of the previous season on his Honda bike. Rossi took another pole in Spain but his fourth-place finish on Sunday saw the end of a 23-race podium streak. He once again had to miss out on the podium in France but responded with three victories in a row in Italy, Catalunya and the Netherlands, a race which he won from pole after a hard-fought battle with Gibernau.
  Arriving at the Rio de Janeiro race, Rossi crashed out when he lost the front of his M1 and slid into the gravel whilst battling with Makoto Tamada, Max Biaggi, Nicky Hayden and Alex Barros, forcing him to retire from the race in the process. After the Rio round, Rossi found himself off the podium once more in fourth place at the German GP but bounced back by winning the British round from pole. He then went on to finish second in the Czech Republic, first in Portugal and second once again in Japan.
  At the inaugural Qatar round, controversy arose when Rossi's team was penalised by starting at the back of the grid for grid cleaning. Gibernau won the race, whilst Rossi crashed out of the race when he was in sixth position. Despite this second DNF of the season, Rossi scored a pole which he converted into a win in Malaysia and two more regular victories at the Australian and Valencian Community rounds, battling with the likes of Troy Bayliss, Nicky Hayden, Makoto Tamada and Max Biaggi to take his ninth victory of the year.
  Rossi finished first with 304 points to Gibernau's 257, with Max Biaggi third with 217 points. He clinched his third MotoGP, fourth top class and sixth overall championship at the penultimate race of the season at Phillip Island, beating Gibernau by just 0.097 seconds to do so.
  2005
  In 2005, Rossi and the Factory Yamaha team proved to be even more dominant than the year before. Rossi immediately began the season by capturing pole and winning the first round in Spain in a controversial manner, colliding with the Gresini Honda of Sete Gibernau on the last lap. He scored a second place finish in Portugal but then went on to take five consecutive victories from the Chinese to the Dutch rounds, including three pole positions in France, Italy and Assen.
  At the first United States round since 1994, Rossi struggled and finish in third place whilst local hero Nicky Hayden won the race. Rossi bounced back by picking up three more wins, starting from a pole-victory in a rainy Great Britain and two regular victories in Germany, holding off Gibernau on the last lap, and the Czech Republic.
  Rossi's first and only non-podium and retirement of the season came at the Japanese round, when he collided with Marco Melandri during a failed overtaking attempt. After Motegi, Rossi scored a podium in the form of second place in Malaysia and back-to-back wins in Qatar and Australia, beating Nicky Hayden for the victory. He finished the season with a second and third-place finish at the inaugural Turkish and the Valencian Community rounds.
  Rossi finished the season in first place with a total of 367 points, 147 points ahead of second-place finisher Marco Melandri and captured his fourth MotoGP, fifth top class and seventh overall championship in Sepang with four races remaining. He won 11 races including wins in three rain-affected races at Shanghai, Le Mans and Donington.
  2006
  The 2006 season started off with Rossi once again being the favourite to win the title. However, at the very first
caption: Yamaha YZR-M1 used by Rossi in the 2004 season
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