MotoGP series leader Valetino Rossi has said that should he win a tenth world championship this season, it wouldn’t be as important to him as his 500c win or the first MotoGP title he won with Yamaha in 2004.

Rossi took the last two-stroke 500 title for Honda in 2001 before it switch to four-strokes and he then dropped a bombshell at the end of 2003 and switched to Yamaha for the following season and gave the YZR-M1 its first championship. He was the first rider since Eddie Lawson to win back-to-back premier class titles on different machinery.

“For me, 2001 was the last championship with the 500 two-stroke and it was a dram for me when I was very young to ride the 500 so I think that remain very important, and also 2004, the first season with Yamaha is good,” said The Doctor, speaking at Indianapolis.