AGV Rossi Assen Helmet 2007

 

Location: Grand Prix of Holland – A-Style Dutch TT, Assen

Date: Sunday, June 30th, 2007

Race position: 1st

Rossi claimed his third win of the MotoGP season at Assen in 2007 after starting 11th on the grid. Rossi soon cut through the field battling with Hopkins, Perdosa, and Hayden on the way before closing down Casey Stoner (who took a seemingly unassilable lead from the start).  Rossi was consistently putting in fastest lap after fastest lap and closed down Stoner with 3 laps to go, and outbraked him on the chicane to storm off and take the victory and his 61st career win.

The livery and helmet designs that Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards wore at the Assen MotoGP in 2007 was inspired by Fiat’s famous ‘500′ and celebrated the forthcoming re-launch of the iconic car on 4th July (a few days after the Assen MotoGP), exactly 50 years after it was first launched in 1957. Aldo Drudi stepped in to design the helmets, which were the final part of the whole design that was unveiled on race day (during qualifying and practice sessions only the bike design was made visible). The design of Rossi’s helmet was a tribute to the art and the icons of he time – namely Elvis Presely and Rits Pavone. Rossi’s helmet and Aldo Drudi  made sure to paint a vinyl record on the top of Rossi’s helmet, and a graphic on the back that pictured Valentino with a guitar and a 1950’s haircut and had text that read: “Valentino and the Chihuahua’s, Live at Assen” (see the image gallery for a close up shot of this). The bike designed also included the Italian national colours across the front of Rossi’s Yamaha M1.

Valentino Rossi on the Assen Livery:

“I really like my new livery, it’s fun and different and the colours especially are something you don’t usually see on the racetrack! The Fiat 500 is a famous Italian icon so it’s good to be able to celebrate the new version of the car in this way.”

Colin Edwards on the Assen Livery:

“The livery’s pretty cool, it’s fun to have something different and I’ve had some good comments from the rest of the riders. I’m not sure I could handle the pink every week but as a one-off special it’s great!”

Image Gallery of the AGV Assen Helmet 2007

Valentino Rossi:

“This was an incredible race.  I think maybe one of the top five of my career!  Clearly starting from 11th is quite lucky for us because I’ve won a few times from that position, including last year at Sachsenring.  Last night I didn’t sleep so well and I couldn’t have imagined that the race could turn out like this, in fact I was really a little bit worried after the qualifying and didn’t know what to expect today!”

“Once I got going though I saw that I had a great pace and so I just rode as hard as I could to get past everyone because I knew then that I could come back to Casey.  When I finally got there I was quite tired, as were my tires, plus he was riding very well and it was hard to overtake him, but my M1 worked brilliantly today and in the last few laps I was able to go past and win.  I have to say a big thank you to Michelin and to my team, because today our package was brilliant and I was able to ride at the maximum.  I’m so happy to win here in Assen, it’s a special place for me and this is a great emotion!  It was nice to have a special livery here as well, in the past I haven’t been so lucky with new liveries but hopefully today has turned that around!  Congratulations to Yamaha for 150 wins, I am glad that we could celebrate like this!”