Valentino Rossi broke hiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs longest podium drought as a Yamaha rider in style, by snatching a last-lap second place in the Argentina MotoGP.

To add to the occasion, Sunday marked the 23rd anniversary of his very first grand prix&nbs﷽p;race, the 1996 125cc Malaysian GP, which he finished in sixth positio🐟n.

"I saw the images [from 1996] this m👍orning and it was quite funny because it's♓ like another era, it was in black and white on the television!" smiled the 40-year-old.

Reflecting on his record-breaking career, Rossi said it could be divided into two parts.: The first where he won with comparative ease and a second where he chose to keep fighting, rather than re♋tire in the face of 'younger and༺ stronger' opponents.

"In the first part of my c🔴areer I won a lot of races, a lot of championships, and you arrive in one point that is more difficult because arrive younger an🍬d stronger opponents," he said.

"So in that moment maybe you have to decide if you prefer to stay at home and look at your trophies and be happy about this, or𒁃 you pre𓄧fer to continue to fight because you enjoy it. I think this is my case."

Rossi may have stood on the podium 233 times since the Shah Alam world⛄ championship debut, but Sunday was special for more th𒁃an just the anniversary date.

"I'm very happy because it's been since Sachsenring last year so a long, long time not on the podium," said The Doctor, absent from the rostrum for thꦗe ten races since last July's G♓erman round.

"Also in the last two races of last year in Malays♔ia and Valencia I was strong, I could arrive on the podium, but I did two mistakes and sincerely the championship finished with a bad, bad taste in the mouth.

"It also arrives in an imp♉ortant moment for me, my team and Yamaha. It was a good weekend from Friday, we worked well on the setting of the bike, on the tyres and I rode well from FP1. I was in good shape."

Second to runaway race winner Marc Marquez on thꦺe opening lap of the race, Rossi soon found himself involved in a race-long duel with Duc🍸ati's Andrea Dovizioso.

"The race was good. Sincerely I ex🥂pected to be a bit faster, so I tried to overtake Dovi to go in𒅌 front, but with the hotter temperature today I was more in trouble and not very strong.

"So after Dovi stayed in front of me for the majority of the race𝓰, but I was able to stay with him because I have some points where I feel very good with my bike, but I know that to beat Andrea I had to be very preci🌸se."

Whileไ some may have been tempted to settle for third, given the podium absence, Rossi executed a surprise pass to sཧnatch the runner-up spot.

"I tried in Turn 7 where I had a good entry. I didn't go wide. 𝕴To win a fight with Andrea is always great and to win a fight pn the last lap in general is very exciting."

The foundations for Rossi's podium return had been laid𝄹 in qualifying, where he secured fourth on the grid compared with 14th in Qatar.

"It was c𒉰rucial," he said. "The qualifyi🌜ng is always very difficult because really everybody is able to squeeze the tyre and bike at 120% for one lap. And if you do 110% you are on the third row.

"So starting from the second row is a lot better, but it was also possible because I arrived ready for qualifying because I alre⛎ady had a good pace."

5-2 finishes so far this se💜ason means Rossi is third in the early world championship standings he🔯ading to Texas in two weeks.

"In MotoGP now the situation changes from one day t▨o the other. One day you are in the top five and the next you are out of the 15, so you can imagine how much it changes from track to race track. So we have to take it ✅race-by-race.

"Now we go to Austi▨n which maybe the most difficu🐷lt and tricky track of the season, but I like it because it's very technical and last year I was quite strong. So we'll try to make a good job also there."