World champion Valentino Rossi says he is confident of capturing his seventh MotoGP world title in Malaysia this weekend, after crashing out of the Japanese Grand Prix last week.
”I am not feeling any more pressure than before and I will be riding to win at every round,” the 26-year-old Yamaha rider said in an e-mail.
”For sure [Honda’s] Max Biaggi will be strong again, but this season there has been a different rider on the pace at almost every round, like [Ducati’s Loris] Capirossi in Japan. Anyway, I am feeling very confident and hopefully we can be back to our best this weekend,” he added.
Rossi, who still leads the world championship, has turned the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Sepang this weekend into a highly anticipated affair after his disastrous outing at Motegi.
”Sepang is one of my favourite tracks. The bike worked well there during the tests in the winter, even though we had some problems at the time, but we have made a lot of progress since then, so I am interested to see how well everything works when practice starts on Friday morning,” he said.
”As far as the championship is concerned, of course I wanted to win it at Motegi, but it didn’t happen and we still have five more races to go.”
Remaining on 261 points, Rossi now only has Biaggi standing between him and a second MotoGP world title for Yamaha.
Biaggi has 149 points and is the only rider with a mathematical chance to deny Rossi the title.
However, Biaggi and the others certainly face an uphill task to prevent the Italian champion from taking the title once again on Sunday.
Rossi, who has won nine of 12 races, just needs to finish fourth, giving him 13 points, to be home and dry.
With five more rounds to go, including the Sepang race, a maximum of 125 points are up for grabs. After Malaysia, the championships move to Qatar on October 1, Australia on October 16, Turkey on October 23 and Valencia, Spain, on November 6.
Rossi needed a top-two finish in Japan to win the title, but made contact with Marco Melandri’s back wheel as the two Italians battled it out for third place on lap 13 of 24.
The crash sent both riders into the gravel trap and out of the race.
Sepang International Circuit general manager Ahmad Mustafa said he is pleased with the way events have unfolded ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
”Sepang will again be the likely venue to see the crowning of the MotoGP world champion,” said Ahmad, who is also events director for the big race.
The battle for the world title has heated up after Rossi’s first failure to finish this year, and people will now be watching the Malaysian race to see if he can come back in style on one of his favourite tracks. — Sapa-AFP