MotoGP: Valentino Rossi ready for Jerez

Valentino Rossi says he is looking forward to getting his 2008 MotoGP title bid firing on all cylinders at this weekend’s Spanish MotoGP in Jerez.

Rossi is looking to bounce back from a somewhat low key start to his Bridgestone career when he finished fifth in the season’s opening race in Qatar earlier this month.

And preparing for the cauldron atmosphere in Jerez, he believes he will be a major threat after two successful winter test sessions for Bridgestone at the technical circuit.

The 29-year-old Italian said: “Obviously Qatar didn’t turn out quite as we hoped but we took away a lot of positives from the weekend.

“We saw how competitive both our bike and the Bridgestone tyres are, and this is very exciting for the season ahead.

“We did some excellent work at the Jerez test in February and I was able to have great fun riding the bike, so now I’m really looking forward to going to race there.

“It’s a great track to ride on, it’s quite technical and it usually seems to suit our bike quite well.”

Valentino Rossi, who won the 2007 Spanish MotoGP, reckons the key to his hopes of success will be how quickly he can get his bike set-up to suit the Bridgestone tyres.

Rossi added: “We know we have a big job facing us, especially after the result of Qatar, so we will be aiming to make the most of the few hours of practice time that we have available to us to refine our package.

Jerez is a great track for me and I have had some wonderful races there in the past, including a brilliant win last year, and I always enjoy racing there a lot.

“It will be nice to return to a ‘normal’ racing schedule, even if I enjoyed the night racing in Qatar, and I have always felt very at home racing in Spain.”