The Italian, the reigning MotoGP champion, is poised for another dominant win in the British Grand Prix at Donington Park on Sunday.

Rossi has won all but one of the races this year, but he says the gap between his new four-stroke Honda and the rest is closing up.

Rossi thinks the biggest threat to him and team-mate Tohru Ukawa will come from the fast-improving Yamaha four-strokes of Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa.

"Now I think (our) advantage is very small," said Rossi. "I think the second (best) now is the Yamaha, the bike has improved a lot over the season.

"Now the only difference is we have a little bit more acceleration."

Nevertheless, Donington is expected to suit perfectly the bike that is yet to lose a race in 2002 - Ukawa is the only rider to have beaten Rossi this season, in South Africa in April.

The 23-year-old will be taking part in his 100th Grand Prix in Leicestershire and is aiming to top the podium for the seventh time in eight races this year.

If he succeeds he will have won half of the 40 races he has contested in the top class of Grand Prix racing.

Up until last year that was the 500cc category but this year allows bigger four-stroke 990cc machines.

The bad news for his rivals is that Rossi loves the Donington Park circuit.

He has won on it for the last two years and is the only rider to have won in the 500cc, 250cc and 125cc categories on the track.

"To be sure I love Donington, because maybe I had two of my best races there," said Rossi.

"It's a very strange track, it has one part very, very fast and one part very, very slow."

Rossi is not concerned that his domination of the championship is so complete that it might get boring for spectators, unlike last year when his duels with Biaggi made for a thrilling title race.

"This is not my problem" said Rossi.

"I try to do my best and if I win I am very happy. For sure, it is more fun to have various rivals, but when you win it is still lovely."