Championship leader Valentino Rossi is feeling the heat from "nearly supernatural" world champion Casey Stoner as the MotoGP title race hots up.Five-times world champion Rossi leads the title race by 17 points from Dani Pedrosa but Australia's 2007 champion Stoner has closed quickly after winning the last three rounds to be 20 points behind.
Rossi's second place finish at the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring last weekend put him on top of the standing with 187 points, but he admits that Stoner is the man to watch.
He says the challenge to stop Stoner winning begins in the practice and qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday and that he can't afford to leave it until the race on Sunday to take the initiative.
"Stoner and Ducati are nearly supernatural," Rossi told La Gazzetta dello Sport ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca.
Source: APP
"To challenge Casey I can't let him start from the first line. With the form he's in if you start from behind him, it becomes very difficult to overtake."
Rossi will be looking to break Stoner's run and his own American jinx when he lines up at Laguna Seca this weekend.
The Yamaha rider has never won in the US and has only finished on the podium once, in 2005.
However, he said if the team can get their tyre changes right, then there should be no reason why he shouldn't be successful this time, rather than repeat his 2006 showing when he had to retire two
laps from the finish.
"I've never won at Laguna Seca and in the last two years I've suffered the worst point of the season, but this time I can challenge," said the Italian.
"Our problem is that whenever we change the tyres we then start from zero when we return to the track. It's not easy however and at times we make hard work of it. We'll get there in the end, but will lose a lot of time."
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