Valentino Rossi൲ is looking to put his worst result of the season, sixth place at Jerez, behind him with a return to the front in this weekend's French MotoGP.

For many years Le Mans was known as a 'Yamaha circuit' and altho🎐ugh differences between the machines are no longer as clear cut, M1 riders have won three of the last four Fr🅰ench GPs.

Those came from Jorge Lorenzo (2015-16) and Maverick Vinales (2017), with Rossi claiming his first premier💎-class win at Le Mans with H𒁏onda in 2002 followed by Yamaha victories in 2005 and 2008.

But the Italian was battling with V✤inales for victory in 2017 only to fall on the final lap, then was back on the podium with third last season - his 13th Le Mans podium from 17 appearances.

"ꦜLe Mans is a track that I like a lot, and our Yamaha is usually competitive the♓re," Rossi said.

The tough weekend in Spain me🌜ans Rossi is now fouꦍrth in the world championship.

The Doctor is only nine points from the top but - unlike Honda's Marc Marquez, Suzuki's Alex Rins and Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso ahead of him - hasn't won a race this seas𝔍on. Or indeed since June 2017.

Bu🉐t while Jerez 🍃underlined that the M1's issues are far from solved, positive steps have been taken and Rossi is confident of being competitive at favourable circuits, which on paper Le Mans should be.

Although only 17🅷th quickest at the Jerez post-race test, Rossi focussed exclusively on race tyre work and feels improᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚvements were made that could carry over to Le Mans.

“The Jerez tꦬest was quite positive and I think we can also try something during the weekenꦡd in France," Rossi said.

"The goal is to have a good weekend, work well from FP1 onwards, and be fast from the first day. We had a good 🐟race pace last year, so we want to start working from there.

"I'm🌜 hoping f🍎or good weather to work in throughout the weekend, so we can show our full potential.

"I want to get back💟 on tꦆhe podium, and we will do our best with the team.”

Team director Massimo Meregalli also hopes the Jerez test progress can꧙ give the Ya𒀰mahas 'an edge'.

"We made 𓃲some small improvements during the Jerez test, and we will give them another go this weekend to see if they give us an edge," he said.

"We know that the Le Mans Bugatti circuit is usually a good track for us, so we want to exploi🍌t this weekend to the fullest and score the best resu⛄lts possible.

"We know both Maverick and Vale are fasಞt ൩here, so we aim to be competitive in every session of the race weekend and have both our riders fight at the front.”

 Vinales, who took his first podium of꧑ the season with third at J💧erez, is currently sixth in the world championship.