One year ago at the Geᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrman Grand Prix, Valentino Rossi squandered a rare Michelin adv💞antage when he fell in the early laps of the Sachsenring event (pictured).

But it marked Rossi's only race accident of a difficult season, and the Italian hopes his 'bad moment' of the 2008 season is already behin🌸d him, after making a mistake on lap one of the Dutch TT.

"L🐼ast year in Sachsenring I made a mistake and crashed, and at the last race in Assen I also made a mistake, so I hope that I've now had my bad moment fo﷽r this year!" smiled Rossi.

"I was disappointed with myself in Assen because I missed a great chance but I have put that behind me and I am completely focused on the next race now. We need toꦺ be at 100% from the first practice and hopefully we can 🍌have a good weekend with no more mistakes!"

With defending world champio൲n Casey Stoner suffering an engine failure at Le Mans, only current world championship leader Dani Pedrosa - who leads Rossi by just four points - has escaped misfortune in the opening nine rounds.

Last year aside, Sachsenring has been the scene of some great Rossi rides - most notably in 200ಞ6, when the Italian stormed from eleventh on the grid to lead🎃 home the closest top-four ever in MotoGP, separated by just 0.307 seconds.

"Sachsenring has been a great track for me in the past and it's a great place to race at; it's very tight and twisty but it generally suits the Yamaha very well and in 2006 I had a fantastic race there, winning from 11th,ꦕ" he confirmed.

"We are going there having lost𒈔 our championship lౠead but we're only four points behind [Pedrosa] so the situation is certainly much better than it was at this point last season," added Rossi, who is set to break Max Biaggi's record of 201 consecutive grand prix appearances this weekend.

As MotoGP 2008 reaches round ten of 18, Rossi's Fiat Yamaha t♉eam manager Davide Brivio reflected on the growing threat presented by an on-form Stoner - winner of the last two rounds - and the ever consistent Pedrosa.

"We are coming into the second half of the season and it seems the competition ൩is getting harder and harder," said Brivio. "Of course, Casey Stoner is in grea𝕴t shape - he has won two consecutive races - and Dani Pedrosa is also very consistent so we have to try to respond.

"Our target, ౠas always, going into the weekend is the podium but we will work our hardest during practice to try and achieve the maximum on Sunday. I think when our package is at the same level as the others it is difficult to beat Valentino but currently in MotoGP everything has t🍸o be perfect.

"The rider who achieves this is normally able to dominate so we have to do our job in practice. It doesn't mean any more pressure than normal because we always strive for perfection and when you fight for champion💜ships this is what you get used to.

"Basicall꧃y we will try not to make any mistakes and hope everything is in place for Valentino to fight for vi🌳ctory, as he did a couple of races ago," he added.

First free⭕ practice for the German Grand Prix🍸 takes place on Friday morning.