MotoGP title rival Lorenzo close to perfection, says Yamaha's Rossi

Jorge Lorenzo's riding is "close to perfection" this season, believes his MotoGP title rival and Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi.

Lorenzo has taken six dominant grand prix victories during 2015, but remains 14 points behind Rossi having lost ground with mistakes, unusual problems such as his helmet lining coming apart in Qatar and poor wet-weather performances.

The pair were level after August's Czech GP, before Rossi rebuilt a 23-point advantage with a win in Britain and a Lorenzo crash in the San Marino GP at Misano.

Lorenzo then recovered nine points last month at Aragon, where Rossi had to settle for third.

"The battle this year between me and Jorge is very tough," said Rossi.

"We're playing point by point because Jorge rides fantastically, he's very close to perfection. It will be hard."

Rossi was embroiled in a huge battle with Dani Pedrosa for second place in the closing stages at Aragon, the pair passing and re-passing each other repeatedly.

He denied that he had risked a crash in the fight and might have been wiser to settle for third-place points.

"I did the battle for the championship because I needed those points and I knew I could trust in Dani and we could ride close to the limit," Rossi said.

"I knew it would be a hard but fair battle.

"When you have a small opportunity to make the fight and improve one position, then you have to try."

Asked if he needed to try a different approach to the final four races with Lorenzo holding an apparent pace advantage in normal conditions, Rossi replied: "I have to decide race by race. But the approach has been the same for the last 20 years, so I think I will use the same."

Both riders will head to Motegi this weekend for the Japanese MotoGP following recent injury scares, and Lorenzo said he was enjoying the title fight's twists.

"For the people watching the championship, it's been amazing," he said.

"Recovering, losing points, then recovering again, it's making this championship so interesting.

"I'm going to try to keep recovering some more points in the next races.

"Marc [Marquez] will be very strong and Valentino never gives up in the race and is very strong. So I know it's not going to be easy, but I think we have the potential."