rossi chasing points in turkey

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Rossi now has 54 MotoGP victories
Defending MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi aims to put his worst start to a season behind him in Turkey on Sunday.
Italian Rossi, 27, won the last race in Qatar for his 54th top-flight victory, but is 14 points adrift of Loris Capirossi in the overall standings.

“Qatar was like the start of my championship but we’re already behind in the points and we need to do our best to catch up,” he said.

Rossi aims to mark his 100th top-class start with an all-time points record.

This time we go to Istanbul feeling fully motivated

Valentino Rossi
He can overtake old rival Max Biaggi, who has scored 2,892, in the list of points scorers from all categories if he finishes ninth or higher.

Rossi, who has not missed a race since his 125cc debut in 1996, has scored 2,886 points in 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc/MotoGP.

The Yamaha rider also admitted he was relishing his return to a track that he has found difficult in the past.

“Istanbul isn’t one of my favourite tracks and we had a really hard time there last year,” added Rossi, who finished second at Istanbul Park last year.

“We had already won the championship and it was difficult to stay 100% focused at that stage of the season, plus we had some set-up problems with the bike. This time we go there feeling fully motivated.”

Capirossi leads Honda’s Nicky Hayden by five points but competes in Turkey this weekend with no prior experience of the anti-clockwise Istanbul circuit because he missed last year’s race through injury.

“I know nothing about the track,” the 33-year-old said.

“Making a rough judgement from the TV, I’d say it could be a nice circuit for me. There are some fast corners and it’s very up and down,” Capirossi said.

Hayden, 24, is chasing his seventh straight podium, while Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo can become the youngest 250cc rider to win three races in a row and compatriot Alvaro Bautista is chasing his hat-trick in the 125cc class.

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