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Defending MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi has warned his opponents that he is almost fully fit and will be challenging for first place in the German GP this weekend.

Currently third in the standings, Rossi's rise up the table was briefly hampered by a wrist injury sustained in a fall ahead of the Dutch GP, but a brave eighth place in that race followed by a terrific second place in the British edition have kept him on track.

With the gap between him and present leader Nicky Hayden standing at 35 points, the forthcoming race at Sachsenring sees the Italian near enough to 100 per cent fitness for him to really fancy his chances of notching up his fourth win of the season there.

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He commented: "The important thing for Sachsenring is that we come out of the box on Friday morning ready to make the most of every available minute of practice time.

"We can't afford to lose time in practice with set-up problems like we had in Donington, and I am sure that Yamaha has been working at the maximum over the break so we will be ready to be competitive from Friday morning."

A vocal critic of the increasingly crowded nature of the touring schedule, Rossi will have appreciated the extra week he has had to recuperate between the British and German GPs.

Sachsenring is far from his favourite circuit on the tour, but he won this race last year and there is an additional milestone up for grabs as victory there would see the 27-year-old become the first ever MotoGP rider to get past 3,000 career points.

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