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Valentino Rossi feels more competitive than in 2015 title near miss

Valentino Rossi does not believe he is in the best form of his MotoGP career, but feels more competitive than in 2015, when he narrowly missed out on the championship

While the Italian won the last of his seven premier class titles in 2009, his output has increased each year since rejoining Yamaha in 2013 after a tough Ducati stint.

Rossi won four races last year and led the championship until the final hurdle, when he was overhauled by team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, finishing second by five points.

He has taken another step forward this year, winning two of the opening seven grands prix - and fighting for the lead at Mugello before his engine failed - with Lorenzo having claimed three and championship leader Marc Marquez the other two.

The 37-year-old downplayed the notion that he was in career-best form.

"The important thing is to be strong and fast on Sunday afternoon at 2pm," he said.

"This is what I've been thinking all my career.

"Last year I fought for the championship to the last race but sometimes in the race I wasn't fast like Lorenzo and Marquez.

"This year it looks like I'm stronger even if it looks like I have less points.

"It's a good moment, I like my bike, the Yamaha is very competitive, I like a lot the Michelin tyre because it's something I used a lot growing up, so it's something very familiar."

Marquez holds a 10-point advantage over Lorenzo following the world champion's DNF at Barcelona, with Rossi a further 12 points behind.

Both Yamaha riders have failed to finish two races, and Rossi believes the emergence of Suzuki and Ducati will only make the fight for big points harder.

"I think that this championship, every race it becomes more open, more difficult to understand, more interesting," he said.

"I think we are there at the same level, very fast like Marquez and Lorenzo, but at the same time also [Dani] Pedrosa, [Maverick] Vinales and [Andrea] Iannone are very strong.

"It will be very important on the race track, sometimes our bike is better, sometimes Honda is better, sometimes other riders are faster.

"But there is still 11 races to go, so the important thing is to work and try the maximum."

FORMER CONSISTENCY TOUGH TO MATCH

As the second-most experienced rider on the grid, Honda's Pedrosa has been racing against Rossi since entering MotoGP in 2006.

He acknowledges that while Rossi's current form is impressive, his consistency when he was winning titles was on another level.

"I think he races super now, especially when you have to give the motivation year by year, this makes things difficult," Pedrosa said.

"But I think when I raced against him in 2008 and 2009, he was really strong every weekend, which now is a little bit different.

"Now some Sundays he's fast some Sundays not so fast but like I said he is very tough."

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