PARIS (AFP) – Former world champion Valentino Rossi begins his campaign to wrest the Moto GP title back from Australian rival Casey Stoner on Sunday in the unusual setting of Qatar’s desert darkness.

The world championship will make history when a grand prix is held in the dark for the first time with the Gulf track at Losail swamped by 3,600 light fixtures generating 5.4 million watts of power – enough light to cover an area equivalent to 70 football pitches.

The bulbs will be fixed on 1000 poles all linked together by almost 500 kilometres of wire and supported by 300,000 kilos of concrete.

“After the last test (at the Qatar track in the dark last week) I am quite relaxed,” said the 29-year-old Rossi, who won five MotoGP titles in a row until 2006.

“I think they have done an excellent job with the lights and it’s really true that you can ride just the same as you can by day. The biggest problem is of course the temperature, because it’s very cold by night and this makes our work, especially with the tyres, much harder.”

For Yamaha rider Rossi, the 2008 campaign starts in a place where he has already celebrated victory on two previous occasions.

A repeat on Sunday would be a good omen for the Italian who has won the opening race on each of the five occasions he has won the title.

A top three finish would make him the first rider ever to reach 100 premier-class podiums.