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

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!

If I test the car for a year I can be quite competitive the next season.

In my opinion we are at the limit now, and 17 races is really too much. With all the testing that we do now, it means we’re always on the bike and it’s quite difficult.

You look at Moto3, the races are very exciting. Moto2 is fantastic, and then MotoGP is boring.

The great fights with your strongest rivals are always the biggest motivation. When you win easily it’s not the same taste.

Maybe if Graziano make another work or another sport I wouldn’t have had this passion to be a rider.

To win the Championship in the first year will be hard. We need time to become competitive and win races.

My approach to the races hasn’t changed in my 20-year career. If I have the chance to attack and to pass, I do it, trying to get the best possible result.

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

I’m lucky because I don’t feel too much pressure – it’s only in the last hour before the race, and even then it’s good, positive pressure.

In 2009, I didn’t like that Yamaha signed such a young and competitive teammate [Jorge Lorenzo]. But now everything is different. We are more mature. Everyone knows his role and position. Things are clear.

I’m very happy because I won a lot. I’ve won races and lived in a world that just gave me joy, so I remember it very positively.

I’m done with F1 unfortunately. I’m too old, the train has passed.

I never race for records. The motivation to try to beat the record is not enough to continue. You have to enjoy it.

Our sport is dangerous. We risk the life out there, so we need to stay calm and focused and leave all the rest out.

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

Do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat.

I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.

Honour belongs to those who never forsake the truth even when things seem dark and grim, who try over and over again, who are never discouraged by insults, humiliation and even defeat.

Those who care for the little ones are on God’s side and defeat the culture of waste.

Perhaps some day I’ll crawl back home, beaten, defeated. But not as long as I can make stories out of my heartbreak, beauty out of sorrow.

What if you have failed in the past? So, at one time did every man we recognize as a towering success. They called it temporary defeat.