Valencia, Spain: Valentino Rossi, with a ninth world title safely wrapped-up, is already planning for the 2010 campaign and hopes to put down an early marker in Sunday’s season-ending Valencia Grand Prix.
Rossi made sure of the 2009 championship by finishing third in the rain-hit Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks ago, and will start testing his new Yamaha bike on Monday. “I am very happy to be going to the final race with the championship won and the pressure off, now we can just enjoy ourselves,” said Rossi.
“It’s been a fantastic year and now we just have one more weekend before we start work for 2010.”
Rossi hasn’t won here for five years - a poor record he is keen to put right on Sunday.
“It’s a different approach to the race now for sure, it’s possible to think just about the result, and this weekend will be very interesting for us because last year I was on the podium but it was quite a bad race for us,” he said.
“I wasn’t able to get a good pace. The weather was a big problem also, with the rain. So we hope for better weather in terms of temperature and rain. The last time I won here was in 2004, so it’s a long time ago. We have to do better.”
Australia’s Casey Stoner, who has won the last two races on his Ducati following a three-event absence due to fatigue, dominated the race weekend here in 2008. He secured pole position, set a lap record and won the race.
“It has come late, but the way my season was going I don’t think the outcome of the championship would have been any different,” said Stoner, who sits third in the standings.
With the 125cc title also wrapped up by Spain’s Julian Simon, only the 250cc championship remains to be decided with Japan’s Hiroshi Aoyama taking a 21-point lead over Italy’s Marco Simoncelli into the race. - AFP |
