British MotoGP: Rossi unconcerned by dire Donington weather forecast

Valentino Rossi says the prospect of a wet race in Sunday’s British MotoGP at Donington Park doesn’t hold any major concerns as he bids to close a 14-point deficit on series leader Casey Stoner.

In the only wet race of the new 800cc era in Le Mans last month, Bridgestone dominated by claiming a clean sweep of the podium in atrocious conditions.

Chris Vermeulen took his maiden MotoGP victory ahead of Gresini Honda rider Marco Melandri and factory Ducati rider Stoner.

With weather forecasts predicting heavy rain for Sunday’s 30-lap British MotoGP clash, Rossi said he wasn’t overly concerned about the competitiveness of Michelin’s rain tyres against their Japanese rivals.

“The weather forecast is always quite bad here so it’s difficult to say.  But in the rain we have a little bit more disadvantage compared to Bridgestone.

“It’s not so big if its full wet because also Michelin are quite good but Bridgestone in half and half conditions are a lot more competitive than us.

“So we wait for the dry and that’s a lot, lot better for everybody. But usually we are quite fast anyway in the wet with the 800 so I’m not too worried,” Rossi told MCN earlier today.