Grapevine: Rossi recruits 'lawyer' for celebration

The Italian, renowned for his post-race antics, stopped on the cooling down lap at the desk of a friend acting as a lawyer named Ottavio Ottaviani - a name playing around the word 'otto', eight in Italian - to get his 2008 title officially recognised with a stamp and the 'correct paperwork'.

The stamp was put on a special helmet with a big 8 on it. Later in the garage all the team members signed the one-off crash helmet for the museum Rossi has back in his town Tavullia.

Rossi wore a t-shirt that had 'Sorry for the delay' written on the front, after it took him a couple of seasons to regain the title after Nicky Hayden and then Casey Stoner took the crown in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

On the rear of the t-shirt there was a cartoon of Rossi cooking up a 'World Championship soup' (Zuppa Mondiale) with a list of the ingredients for the soup around the caricature.

150kg of Yamaha, 70kg of Rossi, 2 Bridgestones, a list of the mechanics and friends were amongst an enormous tally of 'ingredients'.

Interestingly, there was a note towards the end that suggested a drop of 'Young Red wine' to be added that is of 2008 vintage, bottled in California from the Rossi vineyard on 20th July, the date of the US GP at Laguna Seca, where Rossi beat Casey Stoner in a tremendous battle that started his current run of five victories.

Rossi said with his familiar grin that he was worried about testing the development 2009 bike in preparation for next year tomorrow at Motegi.

"I'm quite worried about my headache for tomorrow morning... so maybe we'll start the test tomorrow in the afternoon."