The brilliant Italian confirmed his status as one of the greatest motor cycle riders of all time with his fifth straight World MotoGP World Championship. He narrowly failed in his bid to match Mick Doohan's record 12 wins in a season, but it was the third time he had won 11 races in a year. He set a record points total of 367, beating his own mark from 2003 by ten. This came with a run of 16 podium finishes from 17 races, and put him an incredible 147 ahead of his nearest rival at the finish.
This is the third time Rossi has been nominated for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award. In 2004 he lost out to Michael Schumacher and in 2005 to Roger Federer.
