World Championship leader Valentino Rossi admits Sachsenring is not his favourite track but insists his M1 runs well there and will aim to continue his strong current form at round nine.
Fiat Yamaha star Valentino Rossi will be looking to extend his nine point title advantage at the ninth Grand Prix event of the 2009 MotoGP World Championship season this weekend, with the podium being a minimum target.
Rossi knows that his injured but ever-improving young title rivals Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa will also each be fighting for glory at Sachsenring, where the Italian idol has won on three previous occasions in the top class.
Even if he confesses that the venue is not his favourite on the calendar, Rossi enjoyed a key moment of success en route to the 2008 championship on his last visit – as he picked up a crucial second place in a wet race as Pedrosa crashed out of the lead and effectively the title fight.
Going into the third of four races in an intense five week period - a visit to Donington follows immediately after the Alice Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland - Rossi stated, “Thank goodness we’ve had some time to rest after the last two races because I was really quite tired after Laguna. The next two races are back to back and again it will be very hard, and it’s also a very important stage of the championship, the halfway point.”
“Sachsenring isn’t one of my favourite tracks but I’ve had some great races there and generally it suits Yamaha well, which is good. We need another good result to keep our lead because our rivals are so strong and we can’t afford to make any mistakes. Last year there was a lot of rain in Germany but in fact we were able to take a great second place. I hope this year we can go one better.”
Rossi’s team manager Davide Brivio, meanwhile, commented, “As always our first target is the podium and we’ve achieved this at all but one race this season so we will look to continue that trend. Last year it was very wet in Germany but we were able to take an important second place, which gave Valentino key points for his championship battle. This time we arrive in the lead but we have to maintain focus because these are two very important races before the summer break and it’s important to everyone that we go into the ‘holiday’ at the top.”
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