2011 Ducati GP12.0 – ex-Valentino Rossi
Frame no.VR2 survives as a product of one of sport’s greatest Champions and his bid to make Ducati the pride of Italy once again. By September of the 2011 season, Ducati had already been forced to introduce three radical changes to the GP11 as a struggling Valentino Rossi was still not satisfied. Development of the new Ducati GP12 was therefore fast-tracked and well underway before the 2011 season was even over.
At Valentino Rossi’s insistence, and amid intense media speculation, the Works Ducati team dramatically pivoted to aluminium frames, despite having sunk millions of Euros into the development of the carbon frames that their multiple World Champion was unable to ride competitively. Just five GP12.0s were built in total and used exclusively by Rossi and the 2006 MotoGP World Champion, the much-missed Nicky Hayden.
Experimenting with a different chassis and suspension geometry, Rossi would lead all the testing and development. Spy shots from a test at Mugello in September, allied to leaked CAD drawings of new frames, only fuelled the intrigue into what Ducati would be producing for 2012. But it wouldn’t be until the test session in November, just a day after the chequered flag fell in Valencia for the last race of 2011, that these GP12.0s would be seen in all their glory and be confirmed as using the twin-spar aluminium frame.
VR2 was on hand for both testing sessions and was extensively photographed with the seven-time MotoGP World Champion. Amidst the epic shots of impossible wheelies and knee-down heroics, the cameras captured a more poignant moment of VR2 and Rossi. In between the Mugello and Valencia 2011 tests, the MotoGP world lost one of its young stars, Marco Simoncelli, in a tragic accident at the Malaysian GP. With the media attention for the Valencia test at fever pitch, Rossi used the coverage to make a touching tribute to his fallen friend and photos show him personally attaching Simoncelli’s racing number 58 on top of his own no.46 and wearing a tribute helmet.
After the 2011 tests, VR2 was leased to Karel Abraham and contested the 2012 World Championship as KA2. At the last race of the 2012 season in Valencia, VR2/KA2 achieved the honour of being the highest-placed Ducati. VR2 then returned to the Ducati factory team at the end of the season, as fully certified by Ducati.
Acquired directly from Ducati in fully running order, VR2 joined two ex-Hayden GP12.0s in a single and definitive collection of Ducati MotoGP and World Superbikes alongside all associated parts from the 2011 tests. It then underwent further meticulous restoration work to reinstall all of the correct components as tested and developed by Valentino Rossi.
VR2 is now being offered from this comprehensive and unequalled collection of ex-Works Ducati motorbikes, outside of which only a mere handful of specimens exist. With both Yamaha and Honda obliged to destroy the vast majority of their MotoGP bikes as a Research & Development write-off requirement, and none in private hands, this is the only opportunity available to acquire a piece of the legendary Champion’s legacy.
VR2 is also a ticket to some of the world’s greatest events and was invited to be a centre-piece of two great celebrations in 2026. The first was at the Heveningham Concours, where VR2 helped to celebrate Ducati’s centenary in flame-spitting style, and the second was the comprehensive honouring of Valentino Rossi at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed.
VR2 then is not only a piece of rolling modern-art sculpture to proudly display at home, within a collection, or at events, but is also a rare opportunity to experience this apex machine on track.
