Rossi: I've made my mistake.

One year ago at the German Grand Prix, Valentino Rossi squandered a rare Michelin advantage when he fell in the early laps of the Sachsenring event (pictured).

But it marked Rossi's only race accident of a difficult season, and the Italian hopes his 'bad moment' of the 2008 season is already behind him, after making a mistake on lap one of the Dutch TT.

"Last year in Sachsenring I made a mistake and crashed, and at the last race in Assen I also made a mistake, so I hope that I've now had my bad moment for this year!" smiled Rossi.

"I was disappointed with myself in Assen because I missed a great chance but I have put that behind me and I am completely focused on the next race now. We need to be at 100% from the first practice and hopefully we can have a good weekend with no more mistakes!"

With defending world champion Casey Stoner suffering an engine failure at Le Mans, only current world championship leader Dani Pedrosa - who leads Rossi by just four points - has escaped misfortune in the opening nine rounds.

Last year aside, Sachsenring has been the scene of some great Rossi rides - most notably in 2006, when the Italian stormed from eleventh on the grid to lead home the closest top-four ever in MotoGP, separated by just 0.307 seconds.

"Sachsenring has been a great track for me in the past and it's a great place to race at; it's very tight and twisty but it generally suits the Yamaha very well and in 2006 I had a fantastic race there, winning from 11th," he confirmed.

"We are going there having lost our championship lead but we're only four points behind [Pedrosa] so the situation is certainly much better than it was at this point last season," added Rossi, who is set to break Max Biaggi's record of 201 consecutive grand prix appearances this weekend.

As MotoGP 2008 reaches round ten of 18, Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team manager Davide Brivio reflected on the growing threat presented by an on-form Stoner - winner of the last two rounds - and the ever consistent Pedrosa.

"We are coming into the second half of the season and it seems the competition is getting harder and harder," said Brivio. "Of course, Casey Stoner is in great shape - he has won two consecutive races - and Dani Pedrosa is also very consistent so we have to try to respond.

"Our target, as always, going into the weekend is the podium but we will work our hardest during practice to try and achieve the maximum on Sunday. I think when our package is at the same level as the others it is difficult to beat Valentino but currently in MotoGP everything has to be perfect.

"The rider who achieves this is normally able to dominate so we have to do our job in practice. It doesn't mean any more pressure than normal because we always strive for perfection and when you fight for championships this is what you get used to.

"Basically we will try not to make any mistakes and hope everything is in place for Valentino to fight for victory, as he did a couple of races ago," he added.

First free practice for the German Grand Prix takes place on Friday morning.