Chasing new record

A victory for Valentino Rossi at this weekend's German Grand Prix would make him the first rider in history to pass the 3000 point mark in all categories, but more importantly, the victory would also go a long way towards easing his championship situation ahead of a tricky voyage to Laguna Seca.

Valentino Rossi arrives in Germany with the benefit of an extra weekend to recover from the hand injuries he sustained in the middle of a Grand Prix triple-header at Assen. After struggling through the discomfort to score valuable points in Holland and Great Britain, he is now hoping to be fit enough to fight for his fourth win of the season and his fourth in all classes at the Sachsenring circuit.

“I am very confident that by Sachsenring my hand will be back to 100%, or near enough,” says Rossi, who won the German Grand Prix for Yamaha last year to add to previous MotoGP and 250cc successes in 2002 and 1999.

“I have been working hard with my physiotherapist Marco Montanari and Dr Costa and hopefully it will continue to improve at this rate," he added. "It's really nice to have had time for a rest now after three very hard weeks, even if it's not so long. I spent some time in Italy and then a few days at home in London, relaxing and seeing friends."

The Sachsenring isn't one of Rossi favoured circuits due to its slow, meandering and undulating character, and with only three prior victories, it is far from being one of his more successful circuits. However, a victory is almost necessary as a week later, championship leader Nicky Hayden is likely to claim important points at Laguna Seca - location of his maiden win.

"The important thing for Sachsenring is that we come out of the box on Friday morning ready to make the most of every available minute of practice time," Rossi said. "We can't afford to lose time in practice with set-up problems like we had in Donington.

"Yamaha has been working at the maximum over the break so we will be ready to be competitive from Friday morning," he added. "Sachsenring is quite a different track, very tight and twisty, but last year our bike worked very well there, we were able to win and hopefully that will be the case again this year."