Valentino Rossi’s MotoGP farewell: ‘f**k, it’s my last race and I don’t want to arrive last!’

However, if you looked deep enough into his eyes you could see something still burning – he just wanted to get on with his job, which was taking a motorcycle to the edge of oblivion, not getting slapped on the back.

Friday gave no hint of what was to come. He finished the first day of his last GP dead last, almost 1.4 seconds off the pace. Perhaps finishing his last race in last place would be fitting…

But Friday’s results sheets deceived – they said he had given up but in fact he hadn’t.

“We worked well with my team and from Saturday morning the bike was really improved. I started to feel better from FP3 – this was very important.”

At the end of FP3 he grabbed a tow from VR46 Academy rider and man-of-the-moment Pecco Bagnaia, which lifted him to tenth fastest, taking him direct into the Q2 session. During Q2 he again used Bagnaia – boss’s perks – to tow him around and put him tenth on the grid.

Of course, on Sunday there was no magical charge from the third row to the podium, as in days of old, because, like he said at Valencia in 2006, “superheroes only exist in movies, real life is different”.

He briefly ran ninth, got relegated to tenth by Brad Binder, then to 11th by Enea Bastianini, then Alex Rins returned him to the top ten by obligingly sliding off shortly before half-distance.

“I closed my career with the top ten riders in the world and this is so important for me”

From there Rossi held off Franco Morbidelli, who in 2013 became the very first VR46 rider and four years later the first VR46 world champion. Morbidelli was amazed by his mentor’s riding, just like they were thrashing around the VR46 Motor Ranch.

“In the race I felt the motivation and concentration like I had to play for the championship, because the last race is very important, because you will never forget it,” Rossi added. “It was a great emotion for me. I rode very well, I never made any mistakes and gave the maximum from beginning to end.”

Because this is what really mattered to Rossi – not the applause, not the worship, but the result.

He finished the race 13 seconds behind Bagnaia, a difference of less than half a second a lap, and 20 seconds better than his previous race at Valencia last November.

“It was more positive than we expected and I finished in the top ten, so this was my best race of the season and I enjoyed it very much. It means I closed my career with the top ten riders in the world and this is so important for me, it means a lot.”

During the slowdown lap most of the grid stopped to celebrate with the man who had singlehandedly transformed MotoGP from niche to mainstream, thereby affecting every single one of their careers, to a greater or lesser extent.

Back in his garage it all kicked off, just like it did in the good old days. He was tossed into the air by his crew, VR46 staff and friends, who threatened to bring down the whole pit complex with their racket. Rossi loved every minute of it, but still no tears.

“After the race we did some serious casino and we enjoyed it, like I’d won the championship. It was something I’ll never forget.”

As always, Rossi appreciated the love from those immediately around him more than from the world at large. His favourite moment of the weekend came on Saturday, when his VR46 riders unveiled their special Valencia race helmets. Each of them had chosen a different design based on some of Rossi’s most famous helmets from his 26 seasons in GPs.

“The helmets from my riders were a surprise for me,” he said. “I was really, really happy and emotional when they showed me – it was a great idea.”

Rossi is now a former MotoGP rider, just like Giacomo Agostini, ‘King’ Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Mick Doohan, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and all the rest.

His time has been and gone, as he always knew it would be.

Any regrets?

“The first thing I regret is that it’s finished,” he said on Sunday evening. “This feels like the last weekend of the season, not the last weekend of my career, so it will be more difficult in the next months and especially in March, when they restart and I won’t be there.

“For sure I wanted to try to win the tenth championship but I can’t regret my results and the nine championships.

“If I put the effort of the last ten years into the first years I could’ve won more than I did win, but I think it’s normal that when you’re younger you’re more of a dickhead. It’s normal – you learn with experience. Apart from this, I’m very happy and today was a great finale.”