Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi is expecting a tough time at this weekend's Indianapolis MotoGP round on a difficult circuit which is not one of his favourites.

The Doctor made some steps forward with the setup of his GP11.1 at Brno and during the subsequent test, finding part of the solution to his front-end problem by using different fork bottoms and head bearings but he is still far from happy with the bike.

“Indy is a difficult circuit, and although it’s not exactly one of my favourites, we’ll see how we perform there with the Ducati. They resurfaced part of the track, so the conditions should certainly be better from that point of view. We made a little progress with the GP11.1’s setup during the Brno GP, and we’ll see if we can confirm them at this next race," said Rossi.

"Anyway, racing in America is always nice for me, as I enjoy both the atmosphere and the fans, who are always very passionate. On the other hand, I’m very sorry that we’ll be missing someone who undoubtedly followed our sport, though not at the track: Claudio Castiglioni was very passionate and he did a lot for the motorcycle world, and for me in particular when he helped me get started in racing in Sport Production 125 when I was 14.”