By Jonty Mark
World Moto Grand Prix champion and Italian stallion Valentino Rossi was frank on Friday about his fondness for South African women.
"I like them," he said, "they are different from Italian women."
The 23-year-old Rossi is in the country for the Grand Prix of Africa, at Phakisa Freeway near Welkom, and was all smiles despite finishing fourth in the opening qualifying practice for Sunday's race.
Rossi has already won world titles in three different Moto Grand Prix classes - 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc - the third, and youngest, man ever to have achieved such a feat.
He races for the Repsol Honda team and is reported to have signed a contract earning him an unbelievable R160 million in two years.
It is not surprising that the young rider is a hit with the ladies. "It's nice to have one or two nice girls chasing you," Rossi once said.
"But when it's one thousand, it's not good."
Appearing in the paddock just after qualifying on Saturday, Rossi was pounced upon by a host of journalists from Italy, where Rossi is already a legend, usurping another Italian great, Max Biaggi.
Rossi and Biaggi are known to seriously dislike each other, and famously once came to blows on the Catalunya circuit in Spain last year.
"I never liked him," Rossi has said of Biaggi.
"Even as a kid seeing him on television, he never appealed to me. A good rider, but not a good guy. We never talk and I don't understand why he started to put me down in the Italian press.
"He even said I became famous by speaking ill of him."
This is the fourth Moto GP to be held at Phakisa freeway, a 4,24km track, and what Moto GP's official website describes as "one of the most exciting events of the year".
Rossi certainly loves the circuit and won here last year - the second of four straight wins that started the Italian on the road to the world title.
Despite his fourth-place practice finish on Saturday, following victory in Japan in the first race of this season, Rossi is tipped to woo the crowd - and especially the ladies - by emerging victorious on Sunday.