Davide Brivio is certain that Valentino Rossi has incurred one of the most challenging rivals of his career this season in Jorge Lorenzo, along with Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner being further threats in the Italian’s events, this has been a massive challenge on Rossi.

Rossi is in a leading position with only four events left, however he has shown cause for concern with crashes at Le Mans and Indianapolis this year, Brivio believes the challenging competition will be massive again during the ending stages of the championship, particulary as Stoner is due to come back from sick leave in Portugal at the next event.

Commenting on Rossi’s work form so far this year, Brivio says, “This season has been very hard, because it’s a tough fight at every race. We’re leading by 30 points at the moment after 13 races, so it’s been a positive season but very difficult as this year four riders really stand out from the rest. Valentino, who is a multiple World Champion, had to start again from scratch to fight against younger guys. We saw at Misano that he is able to come up on top, is very strong and is very motivated when he really wants to win.”

Choosing the highlight for Rossi through the year Brivio adds, “Catalunya was a great moment, one of the biggest, it was the beginning of the big duel with Jorge Lorenzo. After that most races were really a tough battle. Catalunya was a great race and Valentino stood out with a great move on the final corner of the last lap. It was the most emotional win, but there were many other great moments.”

On the remainder of the season, he adds, “Now we only have four races to go, so we’re getting near to the end of the season. It is going to be difficult because we have a 30 point gap which we need to maintain, so it will be a case of being clever. Trying to win whenever it’s possible, like in the last race at Misano, but also we’ll have to know when a second or third place is good enough.”