Valentino Rossi has set himself the target of at least a podium result at this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix as he seeks to maintain Yamaha's fine run of rostrum finishes.

So far this season, Yamaha have had at least one of their riders standing on each of this year's podiums, with Rossi managing it at 14 of the 16 races, while Jorge Lorenzo and Colin Edwards make up the two that are missing from the Italian's full set.

It is one of a few landmarks that Rossi is eager to work towards at the penultimate event of the season having come to within ten podium finishes of the all-time record held by fellow legend Giacomo Agostini.

Furthermore, Rossi needs just 35 more points to surpass his and Casey Stoner's joint record of scoring the most amount of points over a season.

Given he has finished inside the top two positions for the last seven races and Sepang is a popular testing venue for the teams, Rossi is confident of taking another step to boosting his iconic status.

“I am looking forward to going to Malaysia because we have done quite a bit of testing there with Bridgestone so we have a lot of data – not something we have had for most of this season. I was quite strong there in the winter and I hope it's the same again this time, especially since we know a lot more about the tyres now.

“We have two races left and I would really like to try to win them both, plus I also want to keep up Yamaha's excellent podium record this season.

“I love Malaysia and I have had some great races there in the past, plus it generally suits our bike very well so with any luck we can look forward to a fun weekend. That said, we know that Casey will be very strong again as well as others so it will no doubt be a good battle!”