How Rossi taught himself new tricks

When Valentino Rossi returned to Yamaha at the end of 2012, he had endured two winless seasons on a difficult-to-master Ducati. His MotoGP stock was at its lowest. He was also due to turn 34 before his next race. Only 16 riders had ever won a grand prix beyond that age, and only two a title.

He returned to a garage in which he had once won four titles in six years, but that now featured Jorge Lorenzo. A rider eight years his junior, who had beaten Rossi to the 2010 title - admittedly Rossi did miss a couple of races through injury - then won it again in '12 in his absence.

The pair's relationship was so dire by the time Rossi headed to Ducati that a wall had separated their crews on race weekends. At the same time as Yamaha cautiously welcomed Rossi home, its biggest rival Honda promoted Marc Marquez; a 125cc and Moto2 title winner, 15 years younger than Rossi.

What could possibly go right?

In very few sports do athletes thrive into and beyond their mid-30s. Sure, motorcycle racing has a different set of physical and mental demands to, say, ball sports, athletics and swimming, but every sport has generally accepted age ranges in which athletes are considered to be on the rise, at their peak and on the way out.

As the years pass, beyond a certain age it gets harder to stay competitive and win. To maintain the hunger to train at the required level to keep a slowly ageing body in peak condition. To maintain the motivation to keep learning.

Sure, there is experience in the bank, but reflexes show and there is a perceived point at which a competitor loses their 'edge', before you even account for hungry young rivals bursting onto the scene.

Only three riders have won a world championship race after their 40th birthday. And the most recent of that trio did it in 1977.

It is foolish to rule anything out when it comes to Rossi, but don't really look for him to join that club. He says he is "90 per cent sure" that his new, 2017 and '18 deal with Yamaha will be his last in MotoGP.

By that time he will be a couple of months away from his 40th birthday, and the Italian has also signalled his intention to spend more time on four wheels while he thinks he will be fast enough to really enjoy it.

But based on what he showed at Jerez last weekend, he will continue to add to his already decorated career before he sets off into the sunset. He is now, for the record, the ninth-oldest winner of a top-flight race, with only Troy Bayliss above him having done it during the MotoGP era.

The Spanish Grand Prix was a weekend that confirmed Rossi has been learning some new tricks, but even since he returned to Yamaha, the signs have been there.

When Yamaha launched its 2016 programme in January, a couple of weeks before pre-season testing started, Rossi was asked what his target was for the coming year. Could he be a title contender again?

"I have to give a great effort, a special effort, to try to stay on the same level as the last two years," he said.

"This is the target because in the last two years, especially 2015, I was competitive more or less everywhere. So this is the target, and after, what happens, the championship, if I will be able to fight for the win, we don't know."

For all of Rossi's gains over the last few years, though, a level of circumstantial evidence still existed. For instance when he led the championship for the bulk of 2015, Lorenzo had a mixed start due to incidents such as his helmet lining coming loose in Qatar, and Marquez struggled to keep his troublesome Honda on the island.

One of Rossi's wins came when they both struck trouble, another when he and Marquez clashed and the other was Silverstone's wet/dry race (pictured).

He would, in all likelihood, have to make further gains to close a perceived pure pace gap to those two riders, in order to challenge them for wins in a straight fight, let alone for the eighth title - a perfect 10 including 125cc and 250cc - he craves.

To Rossi's credit, he knew where those gains had to be made. He would have to get on the pace earlier in practice sessions, qualify better and not lose as much ground in the early phases of races. Bolting away at the start is a Lorenzo speciality. In essence, all three are linked to speed in early laps.

While his crash at Austin blotted his copybook, the signs were there that Rossi had made progress. He qualified on the front row for both of the races in the Americas, challenged Marquez in Argentina until the bike swap and was in the lead pack all night in Qatar, even though he couldn't move up past fourth.

Then came MotoGP's first European race of the season. Rossi said after practice on Friday that he has been able to find the "right balance" earlier in practice this year. On Saturday morning, he topped a session for the first time in 2016, then rolled back the years in qualifying.

Having started his final lap half-a-second behind Lorenzo, Rossi found a whopping six tenths to take pole position as the chequered flag flew. It was his first pole in 10 months, but more tellingly just his fourth since the end of 2009, the year of his last title and the last year he had started three consecutive races from the front row.

While he can't put his finger on the exact reason, Rossi talked afterwards about Michelin's return as official tyre supplier helping him feel more comfortable. He has qualified an average of 0.470 seconds and 3.5 places closer to pole each time this year compared to the same races in 2015.

"With Michelin, usually, we used the softs and for the race you use the hard," he said.

"But with Bridgestone a lot of times you have to make qualifying with the same tyre as in the race. I think [that helps] but essentially I don't know."

Rossi's performance in the race was supreme. He didn't waste that pole position and resisted Lorenzo's early challenge - namely at Turns 9 and 10 on the second lap - to deny his team-mate the clean air he thrives on using at the front of the field.

Instead, it was Rossi building a lead, tenth by tenth, to the point that it was nearly three seconds halfway through the 27-lap duration. Lorenzo threatened momentarily before encountering what he described as massive wheelspin, the theme that defined the weekend, that limited him to 80 per cent throttle use on the straights, but Rossi also discussed facing this issue, and he responded.

The eight tenths Lorenzo took out of his lead was quickly restored and then some, as Rossi galloped to the 87th 500cc/MotoGP victory of his career. The race was about as complete a performance as you could hope to put together as a rider, and he celebrated hard.

This season marks 20 years since Rossi entered 125cc competition and won a race in his rookie season. Now the veteran of the pack at 37, he admits that winning doesn't come as easily these days.

"It's more difficult," he said. "More effort, more training.

"But you can ride MotoGP minimum to 40 years. The difference is the motivation, what you feel. If you want to try to win, and to try to continue. It's more difficult, 20 years ago it was easier to do everything, but I feel not so bad."

Rossi has clearly raised his own game to a new level, and speaks highly of the involvement of countryman and 500cc grand prix winner Luca Cadalora, who has joined his camp in a "very important" role as, effectively, his riding coach.

"He is a guy with great passion but also great experience," Rossi said. "During the weekend we work together and he can give me advice, on a lot of small things, and also the set-up of the bike."

Just as much as a fresh input, these little pieces of additional comfort and support within the garage help. More tangibly, Rossi also looks more comfortable back on the Michelin tyres, despite admitting that testing on them last year did not start well. He knows the DNA of the rubber and the riding style they require from much earlier in his career.

Having to manage rear grip, such as at Jerez where the stiffer construction tyre did not gel well with an ageing track surface, is another area where the experience of Rossi can pay off. He did, after all, dominate MotoGP in an era before electronics and systems like traction control really emerged and subsequently took over.

This year's control ECU is a step back, much of the automated adjustments of the old manufacturer-developed systems are gone, and riders are left more to their own devices. Man rather than machine throttle control became the name of the game at Jerez, especially with the higher track temperatures, and Rossi thrived.

"I started from home with the mind that I could be quick in Jerez," Rossi said of his upswing in form.

"But it was more hope than a prediction. I feel good with these tyres, I grew up with these tyres, it's something more familiar to me. Bridgestone had a very high level, a very high limit, but when Bridgestone arrived I was already quite old.

"I feel very good with the Michelin here. Electronics [as a major factor], I don't think so. It's just good concentration, a good way to work. It's important to be strong at the beginning of Europe if you want to fight for the championship."

Rossi leaves Jerez 17 points behind Lorenzo and 24 behind Marquez in the championship. All three have predicted at various times that MotoGP's new rules will suit some riders and bikes more than others, circuit to circuit. But joining his two main rivals on the board as a 2016 race winner so early, after such an impressive performance, is a good sign for Rossi.

That win moves Rossi to within nine victories of Giacomo Agostini's record all-time grand prix racing career tally of 122. Rossi was quick to downplay the numbers, saying "it is not close, it is so far". A title this year could leave him just shy of the oldest champion ever, Leslie Graham, aged 37 years, 11 months and 21 days, in 1949, the first year of 500cc competition.

Breaking Agostini's record and/or becoming the oldest champion are not what you would consider easy tasks. But neither was getting up off the Ducati-coloured canvas Rossi found himself on in 2012, and continuing to reinvent himself since returning to Yamaha.