Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi has joined Marc Marquez in admitting he his not in as good a shape as he would like going into this weekend’s Qatar MotoGP opener.

The Doctor has been a little off the pace in winter testing where the pace has been set by new team-mate Maverick Vinales but Rossi hopes his team’s propensity for finding a magic bullet before raceday will continue.

I'm very happy that the season finally starts. It’s been a busy winter, challenging, and now I really need to race. Our bike has improved a lot during the winter and, although we are not yet OK, we will work hard during the next few days in Qatar to be ready for the start of the first race of the season,” said Rossi.

“We will see what the weather conditions will be like and then we will try to find the best set-up possible. I’m confident that together with the team we will be ready for Sunday.

Vinales, on the other hand, his pretty bullish ahead of his debut on the factory YZR-M1: “After the amazing pre-season, we can’t wait to finally start racing and work hard over the next 18 rounds. I'm very curious to see how the Yamaha will respond at the track during a race and to see if we are going to be as strong during the race as during the test. I'm so excited to start.”