Valentino Rossi's upward recovery from a broken leg hit something of a roadblock in the form of an off-pace fifth last time out at Brno, and the Italian heads to this weekend's Indianapolis round looking to re-energise his route back to the top of MotoGP.
Indianapolis is the first of Rossi's last eight races as a Yamaha MotoGP rider, and is the track where he sustained his most recent DNF - crashing out while battling team-mate Jorge Lorenzo for victory in 2009 (pictured).
Rossi will be aiming to banish those memories with at least a repeat his podium form during the first American round of the season, at Laguna Seca, where he finished third in only his second race back after breaking his leg.
Rossi took a memorable win at the inaugural Indianapolis MotoGP in 2008, during a race that was shortened due to a battering from Hurricane Ike.
"Indianapolis is a special place, an amazing track and as always it's fun to race in America. I have great memories from 2008 when I won in the hurricane, even if it's not something I want to repeat!" said Rossi.
"This year we arrive in a different situation to last year, fifth in the championship and not at 100% in physical condition, but I am feeling stronger all the time. Brno was disappointing but the test helped us to understand what went wrong and so we are hopeful that we can be back on good form in Indy."
Team manager Davide Brivio admitted that a successful weekend is just what The Doctor needs.
"We go to Indy, where we had a bad race last year, coming from not such a good race in Brno so we really need a good result this weekend!" he said. "The test after Brno was useful however and we hope to be in good shape this weekend.
"It's always a pleasure to go racing in such an amazing place and we just need to keep working to put Valentino in the best possible position to start fighting for victories again as soon as possible."
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