Rossi seeks record on 100th top-class start

MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi can celebrate his 100th start in motorcycling's top category with an all-time points record in Turkey tomorrow.

Charismatic Valentino Rossi, 27, finished second to fellow Italian Marco Melandri in the inaugural MotoGP race at the Istanbul Park circuit last year and intends to go one better this time round.

Fourth in the championship he has dominated for the last five years, Rossi can overtake old rival and compatriot Max Biaggi in the list of points scorers from all categories if he finishes ninth or higher.

Rossi, who has not missed a race since his 125cc debut in 1996, has scored 2,886 points in 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc/MotoGP.

Biaggi, who lost his ride in MotoGP at the end of last year, scored 2,892.

The champion won the last race in Qatar, for his 54th top-flight victory, but is 14 points adrift of Ducati-riding compatriot Loris Capirossi in the overall standings after his worst start to a MotoGP season.

"Qatar was like the start of my championship but we're already behind in the points and we need to do our best to catch up," Rossi said.

"Istanbul isn't one of my favourite tracks and we had a really hard time there last year," he added of a race held in October 2005.

"We had already won the championship and it was difficult to stay 100 per cent focused at that stage of the season, plus we had some set-up problems with the bike. This time we go there feeling fully motivated."

Rossi struggled with the Yamaha at the opening round in Spain and, despite winning in the Middle East and making improvements in testing since then, fears the problem of excessive vibration has not gone away entirely.

"We don't know how the new bike will react at this circuit," he said. "There are some fantastic fast corners so if the bike is working well it could be great fun to ride there."

Capirossi leads Honda's Nicky Hayden by five points but is at a disadvantage this weekend having no prior experience of the anti-clockwise Istanbul circuit because he missed last year's race through injury.

"I know nothing about the track," the 33-year-old said. "I got injured in Australia last year so I was at home when the race happened.

"Since then I have watched the race maybe 20 times on television to try and understand something about the track.

"Making a rough judgment from the TV, I'd say it could be a nice circuit for me - there are some fast corners and it's very up and down," Capirossi said.

Hayden, 24, is chasing his seventh straight podium - and hoping to end a run of 11 wins in a row for Italian riders since he won his home US Grand Prix in July last year - on what will be his 50th MotoGP start.

He finished third last year in Turkey but will be hard pushed by Spanish team-mate Dani Pedrosa, third overall and six points behind Hayden in his first season in the top class.

Spain's Jorge Lorenzo can become the youngest 250cc rider to win three races in a row while compatriot Alvaro Bautista is chasing his hat-trick in the 125cc class.