Great track, pity about weather: Rossi

World MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi believes staging the Australian Grand Prix in
the middle of unpredictable spring weather is a waste of the world's best track.
Rossi, whose love affair with the flowing and scenic Phillip Island layout, has
produced five elite class victories, says the inevitable fierce winds and biting
temperatures ruin the event.
"It is a great pity to come to Phillip Island in this part of the season because
this is maybe the best track in the world but always the condition is a bit on the
limit," Rossi explained while expressing hope for a change of date.
"There is often a lot of rain during practice so there is less time to work on the
bike."
But the Island remained his ideal circuit.
"The layout is fantastic because you are always at a high, high speed, around
corners you are on the side at 200 km/h. It goes up and down so there is blind
breaking and it's always a big fight for slipstreaming."
Rossi is locked in a battle for the crown with Spanish star and Yamaha teammate
Jorge Lorenzo, who agreed with his assessment of Victoria's spring.
"When there is wind it is always difficult to ride the bike and, especially at this
track with long corners, fast corners, maybe it is the worst track to ride at in the
wind," Lorenzo said.
Spanish Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, who is third in the title fight, said he enjoyed
the flowing aspect of the circuit but said: "when it's really cold, it's tough."
Rossi leads Lorenzo by just 18 points and sees the Australian race as a vital
pointer to the 2009 championship.
"Now we are arriving in the important moment of the season and we have three races
in a short time (Australia, Malaysia and Valencia in Spain) so this is the key to
understanding who will become champion," he said.
Local hero Casey Stoner, the 2007 world champion, is aiming for a hat-trick of
Australian GP wins and believes he is finally over the illness which drained him of
energy early in the season and prompted a 10-week layoff.
"If we'd continue racing through the season and not gone back to Australia to figure
out what was wrong, coming to this race would have been another impossible task -
even being close to victory," said Stoner, who made a bright return with second
place in Portugal.
"That got our belief back that we can be pushing at the front again.
"And this weekend, we know our package works here a lot better than what it does in
Portugal - and even in Portugal it was working fantastic so we'll see what we can
pull off here this weekend."