“I have won on Honda and Yamaha so maybe it is interesting to win with a third team, Ducati, who are Italian.”

I am still here because I like to prove myself. I still like to ride the bike on track and enjoy the races. I still have good reasons to be in racing after so many years.

I am focused on racing. I enjoy it. It’s a great feeling to be back fighting for the title.

I have designs I like applied to my helmet, motorcycle, riding suits, gloves,and boots. I have a designer friend of mine put the designs on them for me. I think a livery on the helmet is significant in expressing a rider’s personality.

To be a great motorbike racer, the most important thing is passion for the bike.

I was lucky. My father raced bikes. He gave me the passion very early. I had my first bike when I was three or four years old.

But I could also start F1 or rallying. I love rallying much more.

I don’t like being famous – it is like a prison. And driving for Ferrari would make it far worse.

I race to win. If I am on the bike or in a car it will always be the same.

I would have probably stolen cars – it would have given me the same adrenaline rush as racing.

Maybe the bike is more dangerous, but the passion for the car for me is second to the bike.

I’m really happy, and beating Marc [Marquez] at the very last chicane gives me an extra boost.

The most important thing is to have a good relationship with the bike you have to understand what she wants. I think of a motorcycle as a woman, and I know that sounds silly, but it’s true.

How do Ferrari know what I’m doing next year when I don’t know what I’m doing next week?

I feel 100% a Yamaha rider in my heart. I had a long career and raced with several factory bikes, but the highlight of my career is undoubtedly with Yamaha.

I am able to ride the bike and think clearly about strategy and tyres. I also have positive thinking. I am very constructively critical.

I have so much respect for my opponents; many of them watched the races as little children and were supporting me!

Give us a world where half our homes are run by men and half our institutions are run by women. I’m pretty sure that would be a better world.

Women need to shift form thinking “I’m not ready to do that” to thinking “I want to do that- and I’ll learn by doing it.

When you want to change things, you won’t please everyone.

In a nation of millions and a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change.

We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored.

If I won gold in 2016, I think it would change my life.

Love is like dried flowers sometimes. Even though you watch the petals shrink and change colour, you cannot help treasuring them.

Everyone needs to get more comfortable with female leaders-including female leaders themselves.