Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) staged a stunner last time out at Aragon as he got back on track to race only 24 days after breaking his leg, qualifying on the front row and then coming fifth – only half a second behind teammate Maverick Viñales. Now it’s time for Motegi and the first of the three flyaways, with a little longer to recover ahead of the triple-header. First there was a stop off in Tokyo for Rossi and his teammate for a Yamaha event; now it's onto the track to get ready for the weekend.
“After my return to MotoGP in Aragón, the work and my recovery have continued,” says the ‘Doctor’ ahead of the event. "It was good to have two more weeks after the last race to work on my rehabilitation, because now we will have three races in a row and it will be important to be in good physical condition.” Recovery has been the biggest focus for the Italian, of course, not only because it’s the first of three in a row, but also because it’s Yamaha’s home GP: “I did everything possible to get pretty fit for the round at Motegi, because this is always a very important GP for Yamaha. I like this circuit very much and I'm glad to be here. We will do everything we can to get the best result possible.”
The nine-time World Champion - and polesitter at the venue last year - has won at Motegi before, on a 500 in the Pacific GP in 2001 and again in MotoGP™ in 2008. The track has also staged some classic battles, like his 2010 showdown to edge then-teammate Jorge Lorenzo off the podium. Yamaha, meanwhile, have won four times – with the race on to take the fifth this season, and bounce back from a difficult Japanese GP for the manufacturer in 2016. There’s a little more for Rossi in play, too, with some of his biggest inspirations coming from the land of the rising sun – making the Japanese GP something special.