Italian wonderboy groping for magic of the past (ANSA) - Rome, August 14 - When the MotoGP season resumes this week after the summer break, it will be the first time in six years that Italy's Valentino Rossi has not looked the odds-on favourite to win the title .

The 27-year-old star has emerged victorious for five straight years, thrilling fans and sponsors alike. As a result, he is now one of Italy's highest-paid sportsmen and arguably the most popular .

But this year, largely because of problems with his Yamaha bike and its Michelin tires, the magic seems to have abandoned him, or at least for long stretches of the season .

Apart from the mechanical problems, he has also had to battle recently with his first injury in years. A fall during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix fractured a bone in his wrist, making riding painful for several weeks .


Of the 11 grand prix races held so far Rossi has won four, come second once and failed to make the podium three times. Fatally for a championship contender, he has also been forced to retire three times, scoring no points .

He is currently fourth in the standings, 51 points behind standings leader Nicki Hayden of Honda, who has only won three top-flight races in his life but has made a virtue of always scoring points .

Even for the most optimistic Rossi fan, the chances of him grabbing an eighth world title now seem remote in the extreme. With six races still to go, he must win them all and hope that Hayden fails to manage five third places and a second .

The uncharacteristic shape of Rossi's season so far was never more evident than at the last race before the summer break. At Laguna Seca in the United States he was fourth, with a few laps to go, when his bike started to send up clouds of smoke .

He retired a few minutes later and Nicky Hayden won his second straight race .

Despite his obvious disappointment at seeing any realistic chance of catching Hayden evaporate, Rossi put on a brave face and told reporters that it was all something of a liberation after so long at the top .

"It means that for the first time in ages I'll be racing without the pressure of having to worry about the title," he said. "My strategy will be simply to enjoy myself in the races to come, trying to win as much as possible. And then, well, who knows what might happen." Despite the grim look of the points table, many in the sport are still refusing to rule out a dramatic recovery by the wonderboy of Italian MotoGP racing .

One of his biggest fans, former motorcycling star Giacomo Agostini, who won 15 world championships in the 1960s and 70s, warned that nothing has been decided yet .

"In our sport everything is possible because a crucial mistake could be lurking round every corner. A broken part or a skid is sometimes enough to send a whole championship campaign up in smoke," he said .

Meanwhile, a survey carried out by MotoGP organisers on their official website asked fans to answer the following question with a yes or no: Has Rossi blown his chances after retiring at Laguna Seca? The 56,000 respondents were almost exactly divided between yeses and noes. A tiny majority still saw him in with a chance .