Italy's motorcycling ace Valentino Rossi is aiming to begin a championship fight-back at this weekend's French Grand Prix after being outshone by the young Casey Stoner in the early part of the season.
Rossi, who rides for Yamaha, has won one of the four MotoGP races held so far in 2007 while the 21-year-old Australian, helped by a superfast Ducati bike, has taken three.
The result is that the 'upstart' is leading the championship standings, with an advantage of 15 points over the vastly more experienced Rossi, who has five titles to his name in the premier class.
But the Italian hinted this week that he feels the tide could be turning now that the MotoGP championship has returned to European tracks where there are fewer long straights for Stoner to whizz along.
"I'm very happy to get back to Europe. This next run of races is on some of my favourite tracks where I know I'm always strong," said a determined Rossi.
The French race at Le Mans kicks off an intense period of five races in seven weekends, after which the key contenders for the 2007 title should have emerged.
Rossi has done well at Le Mans in the past and was ahead last year when an engine problem put him out of the race. "I definitely have a score to settle at Le Mans after what happened last year. I should have won".
"I think our bike is very very good and although we lack a bit of top speed this won't be such a problem at the next few circuits as it was in China".
Over at Ducati, the feeling also seemed to be that Stoner would find keeping ahead of Rossi more difficult from now on.
"Le Mans won't be easy, traditionally it's been a Yamaha circuit. Valentino Rossi was superfast there last year until his engine broke and he was also very strong at the last race in Shanghai," said Ducati MotoGP project manager Livio Suppo.
Stoner continued to say his flying start to the season has been a "dream come true" and that he was determined not to become "overconfident".
Referring to the French race, he said: "I've always been about fourth at Le Mans. I normally go well in practice but just don't get it right in the race. Maybe this year we can change that."
As well as wanting to reclaim his status as MotoGP king, Rossi is also chasing a place in the record books on Sunday. If he finishes in the top three he will equal the 95 podium finishes of motorcycling legend Mick Doohan.
