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MotoGP Star of the Year vote - 3rd: Valentino Rossi

3rd - Valentino Rossi
Average score out of ten: 8.4
Team: Movistar Yamaha
Bike: YZR-M1
Wins: 2
Podiums: 10
Poles: 3

Fastest Laps: 2
Championship points: 249
Championship position: 2nd out of 27

Last year's poll winner Valentino Rossi slips to third place in your 2016 Star of the Year ranking.

Re-grouping after last year's bitter title defeat, Rossi began the season with solid points in the opening two rounds, but then fell in Texas - his first race mistake since Aragon 2014.

Team-mate Jorge Lorenzo made a similar error the week before in Argentina, allowing Honda's Marc Marquez to build an early buffer over the Movistar Yamaha riders he would hold until the end of the season.

But that doesn't mean Rossi's 2016 season was not without its memorable moments, including his first win of the new Michelin era with a dominant performance at Jerez, followed by victory over Marquez in Catalunya (after which the pair shook hands for the first time since Sepang 2015).

In-between, Rossi suffered a devastating engine failure while fighting for the lead of his home Italian round, then further DNFs due to falls at Assen and Motegi. Such non-scores vetoed any chance of putting pressure on Marquez, but Rossi did have the personal honour of beating Lorenzo for title runner-up in their final season as team-mates.

About the vote:
Rather than repeat the riders' championship standings, Crash.net's MotoGP Star of the Year poll (which began in 2008) expects viewers to take into account factors such as machinery, performance relative to a team-mate, riding style, experience, injuries, progress and personality as much as race results.

Over 70,000 votes were cast for the 2016 poll, with viewers awarding each of this year's participants with a mark out of ten. The average score for each rider was then used to compile the final results.

Zdroj: crash.net