Motorsport: Rossi still stunning late in his career

Valentino Rossi in action during the MotoGP of Qatar. Photo / Getty Images

MotoGP star Valentino Rossi will be at least 41 years old when, or if, he decides to retire from probably the best racing class of any form of motorsport.

I may be a bit biased here being a former motorcycle racer, however, I'll wager anyone who sits through a MotoGP race they will be amazed at the amount of passing and sheer bravado of rubbing handle bars at close to 300km/h.

You'll often read from what I considered are the slightly ill-informed, that after your mid-20s it's all downhill from there in sports that require a high degree of hand/eye coordination and split second decision making.

Running out of puff may be the case in purely physical sports that rely on muscle mass, but not in sports where you have to use the grey matter inside your cranium. If fact, in motorsport it's typically the young and impetuous who end up in the fence, while the older, more experienced ones tend to bide their time a bit more and look for opportunities.

Rossi is a great example of the adage it doesn't matter how old you are, if you're good enough, your just plain good enough. The 39-year-old Italian recently inked a two-year extension to his contract with Yamaha to see him through to the end of 2020.

At the opening round of the 2018 MotoGP championship at Qatar, Rossi finished third just 0.797 seconds behind Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso. In turn he finished ahead of the likes of his teammate Maverick Vinales (23 years old), Andrea Iannone (28), Johann Zarco (27) and Jack Miller (23).

Rossi isn't one of those riders who is content to just sit back and potter around mid-field picking up a fat pay cheque every race day. He's as keen to win as he was two decades ago when he rolled out for his first 125 world championship race for Aprillia and is hungry for his 10th world title.

As passionate as ever, during testing before the season start Rossi lamented the fact that Yamaha would be 'relying on fate' in the early rounds of the championship. This because they hadn't invested enough resources to get on top of the bike's electronics issues under acceleration. He went on to mention that the Yamaha lacked rear grip when compared to Honda and Ducati.

If the Japanese manufacturer can get the problem sorted the other rider better look out, as Rossi will be picking up a few more wins possibly starting this weekend in Argentina.

Not only can he go fast on two wheels, Rossi has proved in the past that he's pretty handy on four wheels as well. He even competed in New Zealand at a round of the World Rally Championships in 2006 driving a Subaru Impreza where he finished 11th in a 39-car field.

However, it was earlier in the same year that Rossi really proved he could race anything during a Ferrari Formula One test session. On the second day he was ninth fastest, one second of Michael Schumacher's pace and faster than Mark Webber and David Coulthard. By day three he was just half a second off Schumacher's best time.

He decided to stick with bikes as he felt he had unfinished business, and by the looks of it, he's still pushing on.