Rossi vows to keep on fighting

The Fiat Yamaha rider saw his own championship hopes all but finished when an engine failure forced him out of last weekend's San Marino Grand Prix.

But he insists that there is still plenty to play for in the rest of the season, and thinks that finishing second to Stoner this year is important enough to fight for.

"It's very tough, but I have no intention to give up," Rossi was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport. "Second place is not like winning the world championship, but it's important as well so I don't want to give that up.

"The disappointment (of last weekend) was huge, because I had to surrender straight away, without even a chance to fight it out. I had a bike that went well and the right tyres; even though I knew I would have had to suffer at the start."

He added: "A podium was within reach. And we could have verified whether the material we had was good and begin to evaluate the reliability of the new pneumatic valve engine."

Rossi thinks it vital that Yamaha close the gap to Ducati in terms of pace on the track before the end of the season, even if the points situation does not improve.

"The problem is not so much the points, but the fact that Stoner and Ducati have done an excellent job and they are really quick.

"We need to work on the future too, because we can't arrive in 2008 with such a technical inferiority."

Despite the engine problem with their new pneumatic valve version, Rossi has no qualms about Yamaha sticking with the power unit for the rest of the season.

The team have already found out that the retirement was caused by a problem that could have occurred with the old version too.

When asked whether the team should carry on with it, he said: "Yes, absolutely. We used this engine in these tests too. The next race in Portugal has a very long straight, so it can be useful there."

"I think our bike today is not inferior to Suzuki's, which is there with the Bridgestones. If it loses some tenths against Ducati you need to remember that it's (Chris) Vermeulen and (John) Hopkins riding it.

"Today our greatest limit is the tyres. But Michelin has finally brought here some tyres that go really well, both the front and the rear."