Reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi reckons he has some cards still to play at the opening Qatar round this weekend despite the Losail circuit being a bogey track for the Fiat Yamaha team.

In a counter to the obvious pace of Casey Stoner at the pre-season tests, Rossi also reckons that testing means nothing as soon as the lights go out as the situation is totally different.

“Qatar isn’t one of our strongest tracks but we still have a few cards to play and I hope that a little more work will see us improve for the first race," said The Doctor.

"Tests really mean nothing once you get to raving, the situation is totally different and really we have little idea what will happen until we get there, it’s very exciting! I’m feeling confident, we’re in good shape even if we’re going to what was our worst track during testing, but I am happy about the performance of my M1 in general; Yamaha have done a great job and so this makes me happy.

"With the new single tyre rule the tactics will become clearer race by race. I think a lot of new factors will come into play and strategy is going to be quite important to determine where you start the race. I think luck will also be a factor in qualifying, more so than previously! In fact, I am quite curious to see what will happen in a 45 minute race with so few tyres, it’s going to be interesting.

"I’ve used the last week to relax, recharge and train. It’s going to be a very long season and we need to be consistently at 100%. We will take it race by race and keep focused on the target, which is of course winning the championship once again.”