There is no rest for Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi, when after a thrilling race on Phillip Island โ where he fought a hard battle for second place, the Doctor went directly to Malaysia for the third-consecutive fly-away race, at the Sepang International Circuit.
Rossi rode a strong race in Australia and clawed back crucial championship points to climb back up to fourth place in the overall classification, 31 points behind his teammate. This weekend the Italian hopes to be an even bigger threat at the front of the rider field in Sepang.
The Doctor aims to put his experience at the Malaysian track to good use again this weekend.
So far, he stood on the Sepang podium 12 times in his career and he will give his all to repeat his previous successes. He secured a 500cc class race victory here in 2001 and claimed MotoGP victories in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.
Additionally, he also visited the rostrum in 2002, 2005, 2014 and 2016 when he scored second place, and in 2009 and 2015 when he took third.
โWe need to stay modest after the race in Australia,โ he said. โWe have worked well and we have taken another step forward, Iโm happy about this, but we still have a lot to do. Going straight to Malaysia is important.โ
โI donโt expect anything, but we will work hard to make it another nice race. It's a track that I like a lot and I hope for good weather, so weโll be able to work in the best way possible. I'm physically okay, in the next few days I'll rest and next Friday I'll be ready for another weekend.โ
