Valentino Rossi still believes he has a mountain to climb to win a tenth world championship this season despite seeing the title fight blown wide open at Silverstone. The Italian finished third behind Andrea Dovizioso and Maverick Vinales while reigning champion Marc Marquez retired with a mechanical failure, moving Rossi to within 26 points of the lead and 17 behind Marquez.
With six races to go, Rossi remains in contention but feels the Yamaha’s tendency to wear its tyres out before the end of the race could still hold him back.
“26 points is not a lot but for me it’s difficult. I’m always very realistic and everything is open but I’m not strong enough at the end of the race to fight for the championship. I’m not so far away but I’m in fourth place so it’s very difficult. We’ll do our best to improve this problem and I hope to stay on the podium.”
Rossi led for seventeen of the twenty laps this afternoon before being overhauled by Dovizioso but ‘The Doctor’ was still satisfied with a rostrum finish.
“I’m happy. For me, it was a very good race after a very good weekend. I did a good start and was able to ride well at the maximum for all the race. We were a little bit worried because normally we suffer in the last laps but with five laps to go, I slowed down a bit too much and Dovi and Maverick were able to overtake me. It was frustrating because I wasn’t quite strong enough to fight once they overtook me.”
“I’m happy because the podium was my target. We improved in the last laps and we found something important so hopefully I can improve in the last laps before the end of the championship.”
