Australia MotoGP: Valentino Rossi focused on Jorge Lorenzo threat

Valentino Rossi insists he will not let the threat posed by Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa distract him from trying to win his thrilling MotoGP title fight against Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

The Italian was beaten by Stoner and Pedrosa at the last race in Portugal to surrender 12 crucial points on Lorenzo after the Spaniard easily romped to his fourth win of the campaign.

But he said his main focus would remain firmly fixed on 22-year-old Lorenzo as he tries to consolidate an 18-point lead going into this weekend’s Australian GP at Phillip Island.

The 30-year-old said: “It looks like Casey and Dani are in a good shape to try and win this race, especially Casey who has won the last two races in Phillip Island. It’s his home race so he has extra motivation.

“It is possible to be an advantage but also a disadvantage like in Estoril to have them both at the front..

“Now if you don’t work at the maximum in practice and you’re not at 100 per cent for the race then it is possible that you only finish in fourth position and you lose a lot of points.

“All I have to do though is worry about beating Jorge and not focus too much on Casey and Dani. The main target is to try and finish in front of Lorenzo.

“The target remains to win races and win the championship because now we arrive in the important moment of the season with three races in a short time.

“This is the key moment to understand who will become world champion.”