Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo learned from each other in MotoGP

This weekend's Valencia finale will be Lorenzo's last with Yamaha, with which he made his debut in 2008, before joining Ducati for next season.

With Rossi having spent two of those nine years with Ducati, both riders have won two championships during their time as rivals, a relationship so fierce in 2010 that a wall had to be installed to split them.

Their second stint as team-mates was much calmer for Yamaha, but still included the controversial end to the 2015 season, as Lorenzo overhauled Rossi to win the title, and a clash after this year's Misano race.

Rossi says both riders have learned from their time together.

"We won a lot, we always were very competitive from the first moment," he said.

"We stayed together for a long time and we learned a lot, both, from each other.

"There was always a great motivation, at the end it was two top riders together in the same team.

"In some seasons, we had bike able to win the championship, so we fought for the championship.

"So especially for the results it was a good team."

Lorenzo has signed a two-year deal with Ducati, and Rossi will be 39 by the time his new Yamaha deal expires in 2018, but has not ruled out racing on.

Maverick Vinales will arrive from Suzuki to replace Lorenzo, who believes that what he has learned against Rossi could help on different machinery.

"Now it will be better in that we learned from each other, but now we are going to be on different teams," he said.

"What we learned about each other, now we can put it on the track.

"Before, when we shared a team, someone had to finish in front of the other one and that's the negative side to learning from each other.

"But now maybe we can take profit of what we learned from the other side."

ROSSI AND LORENZO'S YAMAHA YEARS

2008
Rossi 1st - 373 points
Lorenzo 4th - 190 points

2009
Rossi 1st - 306 points
Lorenzo 2nd - 261 points

2010
Lorenzo 1st - 383 points
Rossi 3rd - 233 points

2013
Lorenzo 2nd - 330 points
Rossi 4th - 237 points

2014
Rossi 2nd - 295 points
Lorenzo 3rd - 263 points

2015
Lorenzo 1st - 330 points
Rossi 2nd - 325 points

2016 (one round to go)
Rossi 2nd - 236 points
Lorenzo 3rd - 208 points