At the 2018 Spanish GP, the 15th lap will mark a slightly different milestone in Valentino Rossi’s stellar racing career. While the achievement may not be specifically race-related, it gives us all an idea as to how long Valentino Rossi has really been dominating race tracks. At the 2018 Spanish GP, Rossi’s 369th Premier class start, Rossi will be racing towards his 8,730th lap at race pace. On the face of it, it might be just another lightning thousandth lap that Rossi does at race pace, but the moment he completes that lap he would have essentially completed the equivalent distance of a lap around the world. An overwhelming total of 40,075 kms at race-speed.
His undisputed dominance of the sport gets more apparent when you realize that out of these 40,075 kms, Rossi has spent 23.7% of the time ahead of the rest of the pack. This means that he would have traversed a total of 8,944 kms ahead of the rest of the world’s premier riders that have come and gone in Rossi’s time in MotoGP. During the 15th lap, Rossi will have covered the entire circumference of the earth, a feat which took Rossi a total of 23 seasons to complete, where he has won 115 races and been on the podium 228 times. Winning a total of 9 world championships across 4 competitive categories. No other MotoGP rider has ridden this kind of distance at race pace. Although if you think about it, if we count practices and qualifying he’d probably have done it four times over.
There is no doubt that as one of the most recognizable names on the MotoGP grid for over two decades, Valentino Rossi is nothing short of a legend. We suspect that despite Valentino Rossi’s endless barrage of trophies and achievement, he’ll be looking forward to reaching this milestone. A milestone that is likely to remain his for a long, long time!
#ForzaVale #VR46WorldLap
