MotoGP points leader Rossi says he and Yamaha must "work better"
Valentino Rossi believes he and his Yamaha MotoGP team need to "work better" over the course of race weekends if he is to hang on to his championship lead
The Italian from eighth on the grid last weekend at Indianapolis, with key set-up changes made in the Sunday warm-up allowing him to make up for an otherwise disappointing weekend and limit the damage inflicted by Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez in the title race.
But Rossi believes the weekend was harder than it should have been, even if Indianapolis was always likely to be a tough track.
"We knew that at Indianapolis we had to suffer, but we hoped so suffer less," said Rossi.
"We have to work better. We started from too far [back] on Friday.
"On Saturday we were able to find a good balance, and then on Sunday we did another step.
"We modified something and the bike was good in the race - I was able to do a pace that was impossible for me in practice.
"If I'm able to start on the second row [top six] then everything is easier, so we have to work on this because this is my weak point."
Rossi came out on top in a battle with Dani Pedrosa for third place at Indianapolis, and he admitted the championship was on his mind during the race.
"I knew that these three points [for third compared to fourth] are a lot more important for me than for Dani," Rossi said.
"Losing just nine and four points [to Marquez and Lorenzo] is not so bad.
"For a lot of laps Jorge was in front of Marc and I was behind Dani so I could have lost more points.
"But I feel good - looking at practice, even fourth place would not have been so bad."
MOTOGP STANDINGS:
| Pos | Rider | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valentino Rossi | 195 |
| 2 | Jorge Lorenzo | 186 |
| 3 | Marc Marquez | 139 |
| 4 | Andrea Iannone | 129 |
| 5 | Bradley Smith | 97 |
| 6 | Andrea Dovizioso | 94 |
| 7 | Dani Pedrosa | 80 |
| 8 | Cal Crutchlow | 74 |
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