Valentino Rossi's Strength And Weakness

Valentino Rossi's greatest strengths are his braking ability, tenacity, racecraft, and experience.

He is the greatest of the late brakers that is shown no better than his last corner overtake of Jorge Lorenzo in the Barcelona Grand Prix in 2009.

He will fight back immediately when passed, however that is also one of his flaws because he could end up taking a worse line and not being able to make it stick. His battle in 2008 with Casey Stoner in Laguna Seca shows this type of style of his quite well.

As shown in his mid-grid battles with Crutchlow and Bautista in 2013, Rossi has superior racecraft in that he is able to follow a rider for a whole race. Then in the closing laps he pinpoints where they are weakest and blasts pasts them before they can mount a counter attack.

Lately, Rossi is able to beat younger rivals by knowing how they will attack him on tracks he's familiar with. This is also his flaw because in new tracks like COTA and Argentina. His defensive riding the Spanish Grand Prix this year with a faster pace Dani Pedrosa shows this well.

Rossi is also known to get stronger as the race goes on and knows how to push on used tires. 

His negatives are he has trouble qualifying well which lead to poor starts and him having to fight through the grid. This leads him to finish in the top group but uses too much tires by the end to fight for the win at many races.The qualifying struggle is more recent with the introduction of the Q1 and Q2 system, but yes it is a huge flaw in his riding. He prefers to get into the groove before setting a really hot lap. Unlike his young rivals who can drop a hot lap after an out lap.