After finishing eleventh in Rally New Zealand, Valentino Rossi has set his sights on returning to Rally GB - the event which he crashed out of after just 17 kilometres in 2002.
Rossi, then driving a Michelin backed Peugeot, had posted the 25th fastest time during a short opening stage in Cardiff, but was caught out by the slippery Welsh forests early the next morning - in what was the first real stage of the rally - when his 206 slowly slid off the road on a tight left hand turn, forcing a frustrating retirement.
It took four years before Rossi returned to the
World Rally Championship, in the penultimate round of the 2006 season, but the recent New Zealand outing was much more promising for the seven-times world champion as he steered a Subaru Impreza from 24th, to 13th and then 11th over the three days, setting a best stage time of seventh in the process.
"I am happy because [in New Zealand] I did everything that I didn't do in Wales [in the Rally of Great Britain],"
Reuters reports the Yamaha rider as telling
La Gazzetta dello Sport. "To go out after 20km, that hurts.
"After going to the other end of the world and having done two days of hard reconnaissance, to go out immediately would have done my head in."
But with a solid WRC finish now under his belt, and having impressed in other rally outings since the 2002 disappointment, Rossi now feels ready for another attack on his 'home' event: "In 2007 at the end of the season I will definitely race again in the RAC [Rally GB]," he declared.
