After his sensational debut win for his new Yamaha team, Valentino Rossi's rivals must be wondering what they can do to stop the Italian from pocketing yet another victory at the Spanish MotoGP in Jerez tomorrow.
The 25-year-old took the season Opening Africa's Grand Prix to become the first rider in the history of the sport to win consecutive races on different machines.
PHOTO: REUTERS
His stunning performance as he outstripped his Honda rivals and long-time sparring partner Max Biaggi to claim victory in South Africa surprised Rossi, but typically he is in no mood to rest on his laurels.
"Obviously after our success in Welkom I am really looking forward to Jerez," Rossi said this week. "Our tests went well there and so it will be interesting to see if we can come out on top for this race as well."
His rivals will get little comfort from a glance at the record books as Rossi has won for the last three years at Jerez and says he feels at home on the compact 4.423-km track.
"It's a circuit I like quite a lot," he said. "It holds many happy memories for me. We are ahead of where I was expecting to be at this stage so even more reason why we should not sit back and relax."
Although it was Biaggi who ran Rossi closest in South Africa, this time round it is likely to be last season's championship runner-up Sete Gibernau who leads the challenge.
The Spaniard, who rides for Rossi's old Honda team, will also be anxious to make up for his disappointment in last year's race when he crashed out while in second place on the seventh lap.
He will have the added advantage of enjoying the vociferous support of the vast majority of the 125,000 fans who are expected to fill the circuit for tomorrow's race.
Rossi may also come under pressure from Ducati duo Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss, who took the top two spots on the grid at Jerez last season, and are now riding updated Desmosedici GP4 machines.
"I've got a good feeling for this race, even though the bike is not 100 percent yet," said Italian Capirossi.
Rossi's Yamaha team mate Carlos Checa will be anxious to make improvements too. The Spaniard finished a lowly 10th at Welkom, some 40 seconds down on the Italian and will have little excuse for another poor performance in front of his home fans.
"I was pretty disappointed with the first race and will do all I can to make sure it becomes my only bad memory of this season," said the 31-year-old.
"I can't wait to get back on the bike and show that I can still fight for the top places in the world championship," he said.
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