Valentino Russi's 04 YAMAHA YZF-M1 Simply the best

Exclusive track test at Valencia two days after final GP of season, of the factory Yamaha YZF-M1 MotoGP racer on which Valentino Rossi beat Honda to win the 2004 World Championship – his first of four World titles for Yamaha

Valentino Rossi’s deservedly acclaimed 2004 triumph in handing Yamaha its first premier-class GP Riders’ World Championship in twelve long years, achieved just what he’d always said he aimed to do when he walked out on Honda twelve months earlier - mainly because, he said, of HRC management’s insistence on diminishing the role of the rider (namely, himself!) in developing Honda’s V5 MotoGP racebike, and winning races with it. Walking across the street to a Yamaha Racing operation desperate for success with its hitherto underachieving YZF-M1 in-line four and turning it into a world champion, was a big ask. But, one year on, with the close support of Yamaha’s new race boss Masao Furusawa, the lovable Latin had taken the Japanese firm’s race operation by the scruff of its neck and delivered exactly what he’d said he’d do - beat Honda.