valentino rossi is a special figure in motorsport he has won nine world championships and is the only man to have competed in over 400 grand prixthis week the 42yearold races in his native italian motogp race in what is his 26th year as a competitor he is not a favourite to win but always goes well here and is the most popular person in town excerpts from an interviewwhy the switch to sepang racing team for this seasonfor the factory team they chose maverick vinales and fabio quartararo i understood why but i went and said are you going to leave me without a ride they couldnt say no so here i am riding for sepang racing team it is so much fun its like going to play football with friends on monday nights only we race on track on sundaysdoes your oneyear contract mean this will be your lastthat is not how i am thinking officially the contract is for a year but my goal is to race two more years it will depend on how things go in 2021 if i have fun fighting for wins and podiums staying in the topfive then i will continue are things going well enough so farwe are not winning but the signs are promising i felt in the last race in le mans we would do better but the wet weather had a big impact on us testing in jerez showed we can be quick but now we have to show that on a sunday i did better in the last race in le mans but the poor weather conditions in the race were very difficult for everyone here we will have to see what my speed is like in the weekend but i can assure everyone i will be doing my very best to get the most from myself and my bikehow have all the riders reacted to marc marquezs injury problems and coping with covid situationi can see in his marquez absence the other guys have grown a lot and theyre not afraid of him anymore we all know we are very privileged to be fit and racing that applies especially more now as we have also had the opportunity to get vaccinated