Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi arrives at the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain this weekend at the top of 2017 standings, six points ahead of his teammate, Maverick Vinales, in second place, and the Italian champion plans on doing everything in his power to extend his lead this coming Sunday.
Last year the Doctor was unstoppable at the Jerez circuit and got to pop champagne with a first place on the rostrum at the Spanish GP for the ninth time.
He holds an impressive record here, with a staggering seven premier class wins (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2016) and he is feeling the urge to add one more to his tally on Sunday.
“I would never have expected to come to Jerez as a leader of the Championship,” he said. “I‘m very happy because we managed to solve some of the problems we had encountered during the winter tests and we are doing really good races.”
“We still have to improve the bike a lot, that's for sure. The weekend in Jerez will be very important. This is the first European race and it‘s a circuit I really enjoy. We have improved a lot in Austin since the first free practice and now it will be important to improve again in Jerez. We are understanding how to work with this bike and I‘m sure we will be able to find what we are looking for.”
To make this weekend's race even more special for Rossi, he will ride with a new special livery on his YZR-M1 aimed at highlighting the long-standing partnership between Yamaha and JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy (the brand owner of ENEOS), that started in 2012.
The M1 will sport orange ENEOS branding on the lower cowling, a similar design to the colour scheme Rossi showed off at the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix last year, to pay tribute to the lubricant company's dedication to the team.
