At the end of every day Rossi normally bounds into the Yamaha hospitality unit - a few minutes late, of course - grabs a chair and opens up to the journalists clustered around. It's so informal that you can find yourself jostling elbows and knees with the seven-times world champ, partly because Italians don't need that 1.5-metre space around them that Brits require to feel comfortable.
Valentino would be really good on a psychiatrist's couch. Whereas some riders have difficulty in putting into words precisely what they're doing and feeling on a bike, he eloquently pours out the lot, first in Italian and then in English: the nuances of his set-up, where he's strong and where he needs to work harder.
You, the website visitor and newspaper reader, benefit from these sessions because you then get more of the feeling of what a racing weekend is like for this legend of our times.
An unwritten rule governs journalists' conduct at these gatherings: no questions about his private life, including personal relations, religion and politics. Fair enough: but now, fearing a breach in that agreement, Valentino has scrapped these exchanges. He'll only talk to the media if he finishes in the top three in either qualifying or the race, when Dorna's official press conferences are obligatory.
Rossi claims that the Italian authorities have unjustly accused him of evading taxes on undeclared revenues of 60 million euros between 2000 and 2004, and that he set up a home London because he likes the city and not for tax reasons.
Friday am - Lorenzo Admits: I've Tested Yamaha M1
Reigning 250cc world champion
Jorge Lorenzo has admitted that he has had his first test on the 800cc Yamaha M1 that he will ride in his
MotoGP debut in 2008. The 20-year-old Spaniard secretly tried the bike during tests at Almeria in Spain, when Australian Andrew Pitt was conducting a five-day tyre test with Yamaha and Michelin.
