Winner of the previous event in Spain, the five-time MotoGP world champion will be looking to break his duck in Turkey - one of only three circuits on this year's calendar he has not won at, the others being Laguna Seca in the USA and Misano in Italy.

The 28-year-old leads the overall standings with 45 points, nine clear of Spaniard Daniel Pedrosa and Australian Casey Stoner - and the Italian has already voiced his eagerness at reclaiming the world championship from reigning titleholder Nicky Hayden.

But Rossi has played down his claims at the undulating circuit, which also features fast and challenging corners, saying that horsepower would provide the greatest obstacle to his success in Turkey.

"If the bike works well then it will be great fun I think. Last year I made an error early in the race and it cost me the chance for a podium, but I won't be making the same mistake this year," he said.

"We are leading the championship but it's a long season and we have to aim to get on the podium at every race."

"The difficult thing over the next two races (in Turkey and China) is going to be horsepower, because both Istanbul and Shanghai have very long straights. We tried some new things at the Jerez test to improve this and I know that Yamaha have been working very hard in Japan so hopefully we will have a little bit of improvement in this area when we get to Turkey."

"The other question is for the tyres, because it's the first time this season that we're going to be racing at a track that we haven't tested at. With the new restrictions it's going to be very important to make the right choices and also we don't know what the weather will do."

Sportal