Rossi: Speed no issue

Former world champion Valentino Rossi has denied he is concerned that Yamaha’s new 800 is lacking in top speed compared to some of its MotoGP rivals.

The speed deficit is hardly going to concern the 27-year-old after his recent brilliant performances in testing where he was fastest on race and qualifying tyres.

This was also backed up yesterday afternoon as the Italian lapped in 1min 56.46secs in Qatar.

Rossi is expecting engine performance upgrades to come early in the new season but with braking stability and power delivery two of Yamaha’s big strong points he said: “Our bike is traditionally a little bit slower than some of the others on the straight, but we have strengths in other areas so we need to be careful not to lose these.”