Rossi even stronger at Jerez?

Valentino Rossi turned MotoGP upside down when he took Yamaha to victory in his very first race on the YZR-M1 two weeks ago at Welkom - and this weekend the Italian heads to Jerez, home of the Spanish Grand Prix, with the added confidence of excellent pre-season testing form at the same circuit.

It wasn't supposed to be like this: Rossi's former Honda employers were expected to provide its star littered line-up with an instantly effective 2004-spec RC211V that would leave Rossi looking for top three finishes in the early rounds, while he and his crew steadily developed the M1.

Such thoughts have now gone out of the window and if Honda hoped to have time available to sort out a new rider hierarchy and build a points lead they were mistaken. Indeed, Rossi's form at Welkom was nothing short of dominant, heading up both qualifying sessions on his way to a close-fought, but nonetheless emphatic win over long time rival Max Biaggi.

The race-long fight was proof that the consistently fast times set in pre-season testing were no fluke and, more importantly, proved the potency of the M1 over a full race distance. As a result, attention has switched from what Rossi can do on a Yamaha, to how Honda will respond after only Biaggi looked capable of defeating his countryman in Africa.

"For sure everyone is now going to be trying even harder to beat us and they will speed up their development accordingly," admitted factory Yamaha team director Davide Brivio. "We need to work hard to combat their reaction. It won't be easy but we will try to give both our riders the ammunition to win."

The ominous news for Rossi's rivals is that Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha already have a strong set-up for Jerez, gathered at the recent IRTA tests in early April where Rossi was fastest and team-mate Carlos Checa in the top four.

"It was such a great moment in Welkom but we must not let that stop us from continuing to work as hard when we arrive in Jerez, and at least we already have some experience with the Jerez circuit," said Valentino.

"Our tests went well there so it will be interesting to see if we can be on top for the race as well," continued the #46. "It's a circuit that I like quite a lot, it holds many happy memories for me and also my favourite corner of any track is at Jerez, the last right hand turn before the hairpin.

"We are ahead of where I was expecting us to be at this stage, so even more reason why we should not sit back and relax," he added. "Welkom was such a close race and the Honda bike and Honda riders are obviously really competitive, there is not much between us.

"Anyway we will of course be aiming for a podium again, as we will at every race this year," declared the five-times world champion.