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Also him always saying that Vale was the one who gave him passion for racing but to him Marc is the greatest rider oat 🥹

Indianapolis 2014

1. whatever vale was doing in the 2000s

2. 2008 financial crisis

3. winning as a rookie

4. andorra tax evasion public backlash

5. sepang 2015 public backlash

blissful five year gap

6. jerez 2020 fallout (crucially not the race itself)

Qatar 2015

Sepang 2014

Marc: Today the strongest opponent was the weather, was really hot…

Vale: More than me? 😏

i will take good care of you

Fanzone activities :

le mans / sepang

barcelona

assen

losail

I can’t decide between Le Mans and Sepang for first place because they both offer a lot of things in different ways.

In Le Mans, there is a lot happening in on the stage in the fanzone area (including concerts late at night) and multiple places with games / activities around it. You’re still within the circuit and can see it easily.

[They’re not in the fanzone but Le Mans also have the Thursday & Saturday shows on the main straight that add to the fan experience.]

In Sepang, everything is happening in the Carnival Area (just before the entry to the circuit) and it’s really huge and you have these big tents where teams / sponsors host various activities (games / riders appearances, etc).

Not ranking Brno & Sachsenring because throughout those weekends I didn’t really spend time in the fanzone areas so while things were probably happening there, I didn’t see enough to judge them properly.

Rider sightings / signings :

sepang

le mans

barcelona

assen

brno

losail

[Rankings based on what you can have with a regular GA/GS ticket.]

For me, Sepang has to get the win there because if you are patient enough (i.e. if you are ready to queue early) you have so many occasions to see / meet riders with signings sessions on both Fri & Sat, the Hero Walks and numerous signings sessions organized by the teams in the Carnival section.

Le Mans also offers a lot with every team going on stage in the fanzone between Fri & Sat (and they sign stuff / take photos once they’re down from the stage) and multiple teams also have signing sessions organized as well. If you come on Thursday, you can also see some riders on the grid from the stands (not a sighting per se but fun anyway).

Then, all circuits offer riders appearances on stage so I ranked them by the number of riders planned when I attented. Also placed Barcelona 3rd because they hold the sprint podium on the Monster stage, which you can attend if you go there early enough.

Assen had the pit lane open on Thursday so it gains points there. Brno didn’t but they had the event in town where 7 riders attended (short moment on stage and signing session).

The Thursday open pit lane is always a good occasion to see some riders and get some autographs/photos but I don’t have a perfect list of who hosts them or not (also, the one in Le Mans looks like a nightmare because of the amount of people but the one in Assen seemed pretty chill).

Regarding the Hero Walks, every circuit host them (one for Moto2 & Moto3, one for MotoGP) but the way to gain access to them is different for each circuit (sometimes you queue somewhere, sometimes you get them online, sometimes you’re randomly selected, etc) so I only highlighted the one in Sepang because I knew for sure it wasn’t just luck to be able to attend.

Facilities :

assen

losail

le mans / barcelona

sepang / sachsenring

brno

[Considering things like bathrooms / places to chill / free water dispensers / etc. I think in some places this is definitely influenced by the zone you are in at the circuit so my rankings is probably a bit biaised by my experience in that regard.]

I have some beef with Assen but I must say I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many toilets at a circuit. The most I ever had to queue was ~10 minutes but that was behind the main GS, half an hour before the MotoGP race. They also had free potable water, free sunscreen and they had buckets of water with sponges to help you cool down.

The low attendance in Losail probably helps putting it in second but honestly, the toilets were always clean and almost always empty when I used them. Everyone has access to the main GS so you’ll always find shades there and they also had some nice chairs to sit in in the ‘fanzone area’. Also : free bottles of water.

The Le Mans facilities are great and I don’t really think they could build more but the amount of people at the track mean that you queue a lot for everything, especially on Sunday.

SUZI PERRY WITH THE STEEL CHAIR !

Ciao Flo,

Your letter is very beautiful…

Our story was special, and I lived it always with all my heart, even though there were a thousand difficult moments.

I care about you, Flo. You are a unique girl, and that will remain so forever.

Even if we are no longer together, it isn’t possible to forget a story like this. You will always remain a part of my heart.

I will always hold you in my embrace, and you will always be a unique emotion for me, different from the others… special.

No one will ever be able to take that away from you.

I kiss you and hold you tight.

See you around. Guido sends his regards!

SUZI PERRY WITH THE STEEL CHAIR !

He [Vale] even dedicated celebrations to him, some of questionable taste, such as the one about "Cleaning company 'La Rápida' – we clean the trash from the championship" or when he won his seventh title, saying about the shirt he was wearing during the celebration: "This isn't a seven, it's a Sete."

which understandably made me go ‘???? what? that would be from sepang 2005 in a race that sete didn’t really figure out into, long past sete being any kind of title threat too’ …….

the article was from late 2010s, so ofc i needed to find sources actually from 2005, and after some searching i did find 2 articles in different spanish publications, one on as.com:

"This shirt thing isn't a seven, it's a Sete. I'm really happy because I gave more than 100% in this race and for the title. Finishing second here is a success considering all the tire problems we had, plus the pressure from the mistake at Motegi and having to win the championship. I never say that second place is like a victory, but finishing second like this is harder than winning when everything is going well. For me, it was an incredible race. When Loris overtook me again, after three laps I realized he was playing cat and mouse with me. Then I said to myself: OK, see you next time."

the other from el pais:

…Yesterday, during the celebrations, after the podium ceremony, Rossi remembered Sete Gibernau, the Spanish Honda rider, once his friend and party companion in Ibiza, and for the last three seasons his main rival: "Seven, not Sete," the Yamaha rider quipped, taking advantage of the similarity between the number seven in Italian and his rival's name.

and the second one, confusingly, had the quote in a different order! plus, I’ve watched many of his post race interviews with tve and I’ve never heard him say anything in spanish in those ever, he always replied in italian! so that left me in some doubt…..

but then i came across this message on a spanish forum:

[I was cracking up when the journalist asked Rossi how he felt about winning seven championships and Rossi corrected him, saying it wasn't seven, it was SETE championships ;D;D ;D That's Rossi for you, he remembers his friends even on the podium. ;D]

random user also recounting this solidified for me that it indeed happened and was a joke on purpose but still i just couldn’t find the actual clip anywhere………..

until yesterday:)

"Esto non è siete, è SETE"

“this is not seven, it’s *Sete’ [*pun on Sete and Sette which means seven in italian]

@https-shu thank youuu<333

upd: my favorite Italian expert @verdemint 😘 informed me that vale definitely says ‘sete’ and not ‘sette’ there:)

(full translation of the clip courtesy of shu under the cut)