Motor Racing: Valentino Rossi Wants to Win With Yamaha

The rain at Donington Park was biblical. A blocked drain had made the flooding so bad that a mechanic performed a frolicking backstroke beside the Yamaha motor home; another pretended he had fished a salmon from the sullen waters. "If it's wet on Sunday we're in the shit," said Valentino Rossi, the miracle from Tavullia, with a mastery of the colloquial that Barry Sheene could scarcely have bettered, his elfish features creased into a wicked smile.

Outside, beneath the jostling, inadequate umbrellas hundreds huddled for a glimpse of the wonder of the motorcycling world, the man who has inherited the mantle from Mike Hailwood, Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey and Mick Doohan and whose fame has transcended his sport.

Rossi, 25, whose hero remains Kevin Schwantz, just might be the finest two-wheel racer there has ever been; he is certainly the sport's most colourful and entertaining champion, one who has walked away from Honda, makers of the champion bike, to give himself more of a challenge with Yamaha.

It is like Michael Schumacher leaving Ferrari and winning the formula one championship with Jordan. Rossi goes into tomorrow's race with a one-point lead over Max Biaggi with another great rival, Sete Gibernau, in close contention.

"If I win the championship with Yamaha it will be my greatest achievement," says the five-times world champion. But the rain worries him. "In the wet, Honda, which already has a faster engine, has even more advantage. I don't have a lot of kilometres on this bike in rain conditions."

His decision to leave Honda had the world of MotoGP wondering. For Rossi, for whom the fun and the challenge is everything, it was a simple decision.

"I loved formula one when there was Senna, Prost and Mansell. It was exciting. Now it is a little bit more boring. Schumacher is No1. I know him. He's a good guy. But the fight is less. And the technology with cars is so much that the drivers don't have to do anything. I don't watch it now.

"I wanted to change my target to remain focused and give 100% always. It would have been easier to win the championship with Honda. But I already won three championships with them.

"I needed something different. And I always take the difficult decision. I want to work with my team to prove this bike. And to lead the championship is like a dream because this bike is not the same level as Honda. Not yet."

Earlier this year Rossi had a test drive with Ferrari. "I was just 2.7 seconds behind Schumacher's fastest lap," he says. "And the circuit was longer than a normal track.

"One day, maybe, I will do this. I have met John Surtees [the only man to have won world titles on two and four wheels]. He is a great man and he says I must race cars. I love cars anyway. But I'm going to stay with MotoGP for another two or three years anyway. And when I'm 28 it may be too late . . ."

Eight years after his first win in a 125cc grand prix his passion for his furious sport is still evident. "A racing line is like an art for me. To follow the same line for 30 laps, without a mistake, is as beautiful as a perfect poem. And Donington is one of my favourite tracks, with the hills and long corners where you can be precise and fast."

But there is something more to Rossi than fast and perfect laps. "I have to have fun and want to transmit the fun to everyone," he says.

A few years ago he completed a victory lap at Mugello with a blow-up doll carrying Claudia Schiffer's name - a joke at the expense of Biaggi, who had been linked with Naomi Campbell. He has appeared on the podium with a Superman cape and at Donington, not very far from Nottingham, with a Robin Hood outfit. He has dyed his hair green and orange and appeared shaven virtually bald with a monk's fringe, mocking his chief mechanic.

He once stopped in the middle of a victory lap to put on flip-flops and visit a Portaloo. His "nac-nac," in which he stands up in the saddle at the end of the pit lane, is another favourite with the fans, of whom there are plenty. Some 5,000 turned up when he appeared at London's Leicester Square on Wednesday. And his fan club, the Tribe of the Chihuahua, built from an original membership of nine co-drinkers, now numbers more than 6,000.

Little wonder he has left Italy. "Life is impossible for me there," he says. "And Spain is just as bad." Which is why he lives in London. For this is a megastar who can still find a measure of anonymity, a cult hero who can enjoy untroubled strolls outside his Mayfair flat.

"Away from the track I like to live the life of most people my age. I love music and I want to watch football and stay out at night. London is like a whole world in one city. It's possible to have great fun here, with just a few Italians to recognise me."

He calls himself "The Doctor," explaining: "In Italy, if you can do something well, you are a doctor. Also, there are many doctors called Rossi." To the profound relief of his rivals there will be only one motorcyclist called Rossi at Donnington Park this weekend.