2005

Rossi puts on a show after winning the British GP

Rossi and Edwards in the US GP

In Yamaha Motor's 50th anniversary year in 2005, Valentino Rossi claimed his second consecutive rider's championship by winning 11 out of the 17 races in the series. Yamaha swept up all three titles by also taking the team and manufacturer titles. The combination of Rossi and the YZR-M1 proved dominant in many different environments, as demonstrated by Rossi's win in the wet races in China and Britain. Collin Edwards, who returned to Yamaha from this year, was the only rider to score points in all races this season while finished 8th in the ranking. Toni Elias and Ruben Xaus joined Yamaha for the first time this season, finishing it 10th and 15th respectively.

The Chinese and Turkish GPs were on the calendar for the first time, and the USA GP was reinstated after an 11-year hiatus. In the opening round in Spain, Rossi started on pole. He raced two seconds a lap faster than his previous lap times to pass Sete Gibernau (Honda) towards the end of the race and finished eight seconds ahead of his closest rival. Rain suspended the following race in Portugal, but Rossi finished 2nd in the restarted race. The first Chinese GP was another wet race that saw Rossi emerge with the lead towards the end of the race to take his second win of the season. This put him on top in the season standings.

Rossi went on to pull a hat trick of wins in the subsequent races in France, Italy, and Catalunya, putting a 58-point gap in the season ranking over second-ranked Marco Melandri (Honda). Rossi won again in the Netherlands, which made it five in a row - another first for Yamaha. In the American GP, the YZR-M1 had a special USA color scheme for both Rossi and Edwards. The race was won by Nicky Hayden (Honda), but Edwards and Rossi came 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The rain-drenched ninth round in Britain became a race of survival that saw 10 out of the 21 riders dropping out before the finish. But Rossi was a match for the challenge and claimed his seventh win of the season. He then went on to win the next two rounds in Germany and the Czech Republic. He showed sheer dominance by winning nine out of 11 races up to that point. He only needed to finish 2nd in the next round in Japan to clinch the championship, but he ended up retiring mid-race for the first time this season. Nonetheless, he finished 2nd in the following race in Malaysia to claim the championship with four races remaining. He continued to show his dominance even after clinching the title, taking two wins and one 2nd and one 3rd-place finish.

In the final round in Valencia, Yamaha brought in for Rossi and Edwards a speed block color scheme reminiscent of the classic Yamaha factory machines. They finished 3rd and 8th respectively.