MotoGP – Preview Shanghai – Rossi in China as leader

Valentino Rossi will face a completely new experience this weekend when the incredible phenomenon that has been created around him enters the Chinese universe for the first time. There is no doubt that his talent and charisma will earn him a huge number of fans in this country too, but. As is typical, the World Champion is much more focused on the race and on defending his lead.

“I can't wait to get to China to race on a new track, completely unknown to all of us,” commented Rossi. “I think the track will be nice; it is wide, fast and technical. There was a two-week break between Portugal and China and we know we still need to improve something on the bike, so hopefully we can do that during the test sessions. There's not much else I can say having never been there!”.

The first response to Rossi's request for improvements was an intense day of testing on the Estoril circuit last Monday which led to the solution of some of the problems that had forced him to settle for second place during the race on Sunday. Despite having already proven to be competitive during the first two races of the season, the 2005 version of the YZR-M1 is still in its development phase and Rossi has every intention of making further progress in China.

“At the Estoril race, my main concern was not to slip! Mine was a very tactical race due to the wet areas on the circuit,” she said. “At the beginning I had some problems that didn't allow me to stay in front, but in any case, as far as the standings are concerned we are in good shape and we hope that in Shanghai we can extend ourselves.”

Yamaha MotoGP