"I've enjoyed every minute of it", those were the words of Jerry Burgess, 🐼reflecting on his record-breaking MotoGP partne꧑rship with Valentino Rossi, which will come to a surprise end after Sunday's Valencia season finale.

Burgess and Rossi have won seven world championships since the start of the Italian's premier-class career in 2000, before which Burgess took six title🔴s with Mick💜 Doohan and Wayne Gardner.

However Rossi has opted to replace the 60-year-old Australian 🅠for what looks like one final roll of the dice in his quest to get on terms🌸 with Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in 2014, the last year of Rossi's Yamaha contract.

"14 years and 80 odd Grand Prix wins, which is basically five a year, those figures are good, and what we've done has been terrific. I've enjoyed every minute of it," said Burgess, avoiding any public bitterness despite admitting he had bee𝄹n 'blindsided' by the decision.

"Obviously I was always get🌺ting closer to the end of my career and was making determinations on an exit policy based on Valentino's competitive and his time in MotoGP.

"As Valentino said, I was constantly moving the goalposts in terms of commitment [whether to stay beyond 2014] but I'm🌞 comfortable with everything and I've got a good set-✃up around me at home so I'm happy in that area.

"I don't know if there was a beginning of the end, but I know that the Ducati years were difficult for Valentino and that we weren't able to achieve t🐻he success that we had expected.

"Coming back to Yamaha has been fantastic and with Valentino having a year on the bike, and the understanding and familiariඣsat🌺ion with the bike this year, will put Valentino in a stronger position to start next year.

"I can't think of a bad moment off hand and it's been a very good 14 years, but if I was to pick a bad moment the outcome of cleaning the grid in Qatar [which saw Rossi penalised with a back of grid start] was p🌳robably a moment that perhaps we got carried away a little bit!"

Burgess added that Rossi's achi💜evements have been especially impressive given the many different types of grand🌟 prix machines - 125cc, 250cc, 500cc, 990cc, 800cc and 1000cc - he has raced.

"You won't be able to mention motorcycle racing at any time in 🦩the future without mentioning the name Valentino Rossi. To have won championships in all the categories places him in a more select group, perhaps, than Gardner or Doohan."

34-year-old Rossi, who informed Burgess of his decision on Thursday, is yet to reveal the identity of🌠 his new crew chief.

"We have two or three options but we are not in a hurry because for Monday we can do the test just like Jeremy was at home and we worked with Matteo [Flamigni, data engineer] so we're not i🅰n a rush to de🌠cide," he said.

Rossi's most recent title was in 2009 and, prior to this year's Assen victory he had not won a race since leaving Yamaha for Ducati at the end of 2010. The Doctor will finish fourth in this year's sta🍌ndings, regardless of Sunday's race.