Valentino Rossi’s Aprilia ally: “He often fell, then

One of the earliest aides to Valentino Rossi’s career admits he didn’t expect the future MotoGP legend to win nine world titles.

Rossi’s iconic career yielded seven premier class championships, after glory at the 250cc and 125cc levels.

Aprilia were the manufacturer who gave Rossi his big start, after Carlo Pernat became aware of his prodigious Italian rider.

Pernat, now a MotoGP paddock veteran as a rider manager, was then in charge of Aprilia’s sporting activities.

You could see that he had a talent that the others didn’t have, even if I never believed he could win nine world championships.

“I had to insist and not a little, but I convinced the owner, since we had already won once with Max Biaggi, who was also unknown when I took him.

“Initially he didn’t know how to ride in the wet, he always fell. Then he won everyone over.”