After a disastrous engine failure at Misano, Rossi has slipped 85 points behind Ducati's
Casey Stoner - who can wrap up the title four rounds early if he scores 15 points more than Rossi at Estoril next Sunday.
"To be honest the championship is almost out of reach for us, especially when Stoner is so strong, so we will put all our energies into holding onto our second place and winning as many races as possible, as well as thinking about continuing the development of our package for next year," stated Rossi, who has won three races of the 13 so far held and is 20 points clear of Honda's
Dani Pedrosa. "Now the aim is to have a good end to the season - we have five races left and we will be trying to win all five, even if the championship is out of our reach. I've had some good races at Estoril in the past although last year I missed out on the win by a tiny amount!"
Indeed, a dramatic 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix saw Rossi propelled back into the title lead after team-mates Pedrosa and
Nicky Hayden sensationally collided - but the Italian lost five further points when he was beaten to the line by
Toni Elias, by just 0.002secs. This weekend, he's out to avenge both that loss and his recent Misano misery.
"Misano was a great, great disappointment," said Rossi. "To not have the chance to fight and to finish after just a few laps was a terrible thing, but now we just have to put it behind us. We got back to work straight away on Monday for the test and we did some really good work with Michelin - it seems that they found some good new tyres and overall it was quite an encouraging test, much more than the last one. Hopefully we will be ready in Estoril with a package with which we can fight."
Fiat Yamaha team director Davide Brivio insists that the title fight isn't over, but also made clear that unless Michelin can provide competitive tyres then Rossi and team-mate
Colin Edwards won't stand a chance.
