A frustrating fifth on his Bridgestone debut at the Qatar season opener has stretched Valentino Rossi's losing streak to five races.
That might not sound like much, but it marks the five-time MotoGP world champion's joint-longest losing streak since his first ever premier-class victory, at Donington Park in 2000.
Fortunately for the Fiat Yamaha star, his previous five race losing streak came to an end one year ago at Jerez - venue for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix - and a 2008 repeat, at one of The Doctor's favourite circuits, would also shatter a three-race podium absence with a landmark 100th premier-class rostrum.
"Obviously Qatar didn't turn out quite as we hoped but we took away a lot of positives from the weekend," said Rossi of the inaugural MotoGP night race. "We saw how competitive both our bike [Michelin-shod team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished second] and the Bridgestone tyres are [Ducati's Casey Stoner won the race], and this is very exciting for the season ahead.
"We did some excellent work at the Jerez test in February and I was able to have great fun riding the bike, so now I'm really looking forward to going to race there," he continued. "It's a great track to ride on, it's quite technical and it usually seems to suit our bike quite well. We know we have a big job facing us, especially after the result of Qatar, so we will be aiming to make the most of the few hours of practice time that we have available to us to refine our package."
Rossi's love affair with the Spanish fans stretches back to 1996, when he took the first of his six victories in all classes at Jerez.
Five of those have come in the premier-class, including in 2005 - when he memorably clashed with Sete Gibernau at the final turn - and 2007, when he finished 1.2secs clear of home hero Dani Pedrosa.
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That might not sound like much, but it marks the five-time MotoGP world champion's joint-longest losing streak since his first ever premier-class victory, at Donington Park in 2000.
Fortunately for the Fiat Yamaha star, his previous five race losing streak came to an end one year ago at Jerez - venue for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix - and a 2008 repeat, at one of The Doctor's favourite circuits, would also shatter a three-race podium absence with a landmark 100th premier-class rostrum.
"Obviously Qatar didn't turn out quite as we hoped but we took away a lot of positives from the weekend," said Rossi of the inaugural MotoGP night race. "We saw how competitive both our bike [Michelin-shod team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished second] and the Bridgestone tyres are [Ducati's Casey Stoner won the race], and this is very exciting for the season ahead.
"We did some excellent work at the Jerez test in February and I was able to have great fun riding the bike, so now I'm really looking forward to going to race there," he continued. "It's a great track to ride on, it's quite technical and it usually seems to suit our bike quite well. We know we have a big job facing us, especially after the result of Qatar, so we will be aiming to make the most of the few hours of practice time that we have available to us to refine our package."
Rossi's love affair with the Spanish fans stretches back to 1996, when he took the first of his six victories in all classes at Jerez.
Five of those have come in the premier-class, including in 2005 - when he memorably clashed with Sete Gibernau at the final turn - and 2007, when he finished 1.2secs clear of home hero Dani Pedrosa.
crash.net