Rossi collects his lucky number

MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi will compete as car 46 on Wales Rally GB thanks to Finnish driver Jari Ketomaa who has lent the number to him for the weekend.

Ketomaa was allocated number 46 for the whole of his own 2008 P-WRC campaign but was happy to assist Rossi and will run as number 146 on this event instead.

Rossi, who is noted for being superstitious, personally thanked Ketomaa for the gesture. “It was very important for me to get number 46 - Jari was very fair to give me the number,” said Rossi. “I was car 46 on the two rallies I have done previously and I’ve never ridden a motorbike or driven a car in an official race without it”

Rossi also gave his views on the pre-event recce. “I’m happy with how it went - although some of the conditions were a disaster,” he said. “There was a lot of ice about. I didn’t know the level of grip and with a normal car it was easy to make a mistake. We improved a lot with the pace notes after our last rally in New Zealand. Trying to understand what you need to know from your co-driver is a very difficult part of this job.”

Despite the tricky conditions, and only a small amount of testing, Rossi hopes to be at least as competitive this weekend as he was on his last outing in New Zealand, where he finished 11th.

“We have only done one day of testing in the UK, about three weeks ago, and that’s not a lot,” he said. “So our testing will continue in the race. We need to make a few kilometres to understand the car, and then we’ll see. My goal is to have fun and finish. At the end of New Zealand in some stages I was about two seconds per kilometre off Marcus Gronholm’s pace. My target is to try and get as close to the leaders again here.”

Asked about his rally plans beyond this event Valentino said: “I hope to do more rallying in the future. However my first job and my first passion is motorbikes. I have another two year contract with Yamaha already signed but I hope in the future to make a real season in a WRC. I hope so.”