Yamaha riders head to Portugal

From Yamaha Racing

Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo head to Europe's Atlantic coast this weekend as they look to build on a positive start to the season with another bountiful points-haul at Estoril. The 11th edition of the Grand Prix of Portugal is the third round of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship and is an event that has seen contrasting fortunes for the Italian and the Spaniard in the past.

Rossi is the most successful rider in Grand Prix history at Estoril, having finished on the podium on each of his eight visits to the circuit, including five race victories. The 29-year-old hopes to round that figure up to a half dozen on Sunday as he targets a repeat of his hard-fought victory at the circuit last October. That win was Rossi's most recent, making for a six-race run without an appearance on the top step of the podium - his longest since his debut win in 2000.

Estoril is one of only four circuits on the current calendar where Jorge Lorenzo has previously raced that he has not had a victory in any Grand Prix class. It is also one of only two current circuits where the 21-year-old has not had a pole position, but after starting from the front of the grid and finishing on the podium in each of the opening two races of his MotoGP career he has nothing to fear this weekend.

While last year's race was run in ambient temperatures of 28C, the spring climate on the Portuguese coast averages in the low 20s, although the location of the Estoril circuit is just seven kilometres from the Atlantic and it is notorious for dramatic changes in weather, with spells of warm sunshine often interrupted by wild gusts of cold wind and rain.

The layout of the Autodromo Fernanda Pires de Silva is similarly contrasting, featuring one of the longest main straights in MotoGP and one of the slowest corners. Several other twisty sections make for the lowest average speed in the championship but the 200km/h kink at turn 5 and the final Parabolica corner are two of the toughest tests of any rider's skill and bravery.

"Estoril last year was a great race; it was a fantastically close battle with Pedrosa and one of the high points of the season for us," Rossi said. "It's also the last time I won a race and I hope that this is something we can repeat again this time! Jerez was a very important race for us, second place in just our second race with Bridgestone and following the difficult result in Qatar it was very important, plus it gave confidence to everyone involved that our package is really coming together."