Rossi, Hayden relish the challenge.

Repsol Honda team-mates Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden are looking forward to the 2003 MotoGP championship with great anticipation, as neither can wait to race after the long winter testing programme that has seen them put the updated five-cylinder, 990cc Honda RC211V through its paces.

The hugely anticipated 16-round world championship, now in its 54th year, will see the Repsol Honda team campaign with riders of vastly differing experience on the international racing stage.

Four-times world champion Rossi will be commencing his eighth grand prix season at the age of just 24. The opening race of the season at Suzuka in Japan - where he will be looking to complete a hat-trick of wins - will be his 109th GP.

The Italian superstar from Tavullia has won 50 GPs and finished on the podium an amazing 74 times in a career that has seen him capture world titles in 125cc (1997), 250cc (1999), 500cc (2001), and the inaugural MotoGP class in 2002. He is the fifth most successful rider in the history of grand prix racing, and has the opportunity of moving ahead of Phil Read (52 GP wins) and Mick Doohan (54 victories) during the 2003 season.

"It's hard to win a championship but, sometimes, it's more difficult to stay at the top," Rossi admitted, "This year will be very hard to win. Last year, we [Honda and Rossi] were the fastest to develop the bike, which helped me to attack from the beginning. Our rivals started to be competitive after the Brno race, but it was too late. This year, everybody is ready from the first race and I have many rivals - it will be a thrilling season and I think it will be impossible to win the same number of races as last year."

In contrast, the Italian's American rookie team-mate, Nicky Hayden, has never started a GP race. The 21-year old from Owensboro, Kentucky, comes to the championship as the youngest ever American Superbike champion. He captured the 2002 title riding a Honda RC51 (SP2) and spent the winter adapting to the very different machine characteristics of the RC211V - the machine that won 14 of the 16 GPs last season.

"I'm so looking forward to getting out there racing!" Hayden confessed, "I'm under no illusions about how difficult this season is going to be. I'm riding with the best guys in the world on the best bikes in the world on a whole bunch of tracks I've mostly never seen!

"However, I've got a great new team I'm working with, who have really helped me over the winter - we have developed a really good understanding and, every time I get on the bike, I feel a little more comfortable The test with the other guys at Catalunya was great, and I really enjoyed having some company on the track after all the testing we've done when I've really been going around in circles on my own. My last race was seems an age ago. I can't wait for another!"

The MotoGP competition in 2003 will be the hottest for years, with nine former and current world champions taking to the Suzuka grid on Sunday 6 April, and a total of eight separate manufacturers represented. If the total circuit attendance at last year's 16 GPs topped 1.5 million, one can only imagine what 2003 has in store.