MOVISTAR Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi battled with his former Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso to take the victory in the 2015 season opener in Qatar on Sunday.

Rossi started from eighth on the grid and was shuffled back to 10th, but took only a few laps to plough through the field to fifth.

He then battled with Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who has revealed he is suffering from severe arm-pump.

Rossi soon passed Yonny Hernandez to take fourth and continued to bridge the 1.5 second gap to the leading group of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, as well as Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo. An incredible battle between the two factory teams ensued, with the lead changing several times.

The Doctor held enough of an advantage to take the win by 0.174s – his first season opener win since 2010.

He said: ‘In the last three seasons I always rode solid races and arrived on the podium but to come back with a victory is another thing.

‘I am so happy because we suffered a lot during the practices and also the tests, but we worked very well for the 22 laps race and I was very strong.

‘First of all you have to be lucky, but especially the work that we do with the team during the weekend makes the difference for my pace in the race.

‘It was definitely one of the best races of my career, considering where we were yesterday. I really have to thank all my team, my engineers and all at Yamaha because I think today we did something amazing.’

The Italian’s win earns him first place in the championship standings with 25 points. Thanks to Lorenzo’s fourth place finish and 13 points, Movistar Yamaha is the leading team with 38 points. 

The next round will be at the Circuit of the Americas, US, in two weeks’ times. 

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