MotoGP news

Rossi ready to defend his title

Valentino Rossi is all set to defend his latest MotoGP crown, starting with the Grand Prix of Qatar this weekend. 2009 will be the sixth time the Italian has set out to defend a title, having clinched the win between 2002 and 2005, as well as last year.

Qatar hosted the first ever MotoGP night race in 2008 and continues to do so this year, with practice the first session to commence on Friday. Rossi has a reputation to match this year, having claimed nine race wins on his way to last season's title; if all goes according to plan, the Italian could complete a century of wins this year, with 97 already already to his name. Without being too optimistic, the Urbino-born rider - whose current contract runs until the end of 2010 - could even bother the statistics of Giacomo Agostini, who holds the MotoGP record of 122.

"Qatar isn't one of our strongest tracks," Rossi admitted, "but we still have a few cards to play and I hope that a little more work will see us improve for the first race. Tests really mean nothing once you get to racing because the situation is totally different, and really we have little idea what will happen until we get there - it's very exciting! I'm feeling confident and we're in good shape, even though we're going to what was our worst track during testing. I am happy about the performance of my M1 in general - Yamaha have done a great job and so this makes me happy. With the new single tyre rule, the tactics will become clearer race-by-race. I think a lot of new factors will come into play, and strategy is going to be quite important to determine where you start the race.

Superstitious Rossi also believes that some luck during qualifying sessions will also be more key than ever before this year, with the limited supply of tyres likely to bring some curiously interesting results in race. "It's going to be interesting," he added. "I've used the last week to relax, recharge and train; it's going to be a very long season and we need to consistently be at 100%, so will take it race-by-race and keep focused on the target which is, of course, winning the championship once again."

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