Reigning six time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi will have to work hard to overcome the predicted challenge of Casey Stoner at this weekend’s Qatar season-opener, but warned that ‘tests mean nothing’ and insists he has ‘a few cards to play’.
Rossi’s most recent Qatar victory was in 2006, and he was only third fastest in the 2009 Qatar pre-season night test, over one second behind Stoner’s Ducati. Surprisingly, Rossi was also outpaced by Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo at the test, now using the same Bridgetsone/M1 technical package, but Rossi remains defiant.
“Qatar isn’t one of our strongest tracks 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,” he said. “Tests really mean nothing once you get to racing, the situation is totally different and really we have little idea what will happen until we get there, it’s very exciting!
Stoner, the 2007 world champion and Rossi’s closest 2008 rival, was able to outpace the Italian at all three pre-season tests, but Rossi is the master of race day battles and is interested to see how the new single-tyre rule will influence tactics.
“I’ve used the last week to relax, recharge and train,” said Rossi. “It’s going to be a very long season and we need to be consistently at 100%. We 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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