Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi fought hard to keep the World Championship open at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, eventually finishing third.

The nine time World Champion made an excellent start from the front row of the grid, leading through the opening turns. Rossi was able to extend his lead, running at the front for the opening four laps.

Lap five saw Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) get past Rossi and create a comfortable lead. The Italian then focused on staying ahead of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) and keeping the World Championship alive, even if for just another race.

The pair battled during the middle of the race with Marquez eventually getting the upper hand on Lap 16. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) closed in drastically on Rossi, pushing the Italian to improve his pace as the race drew to a close.

Rossi finished half a second ahead of Pedrosa at the flag and is now level on points with the Spaniard in the battle for second.

Rossi reflected on the race,

“I had a small chance to keep the championship party open, I wanted to keep it open another race. Marc’s advantage was very big, but maybe we could keep it open still. I tried my maximum, especially with Pedrosa behind me at the end. I had a good pace but Marquez had something a little extra so it was impossible. I think this was a higher level race to the rest of the season, so I’m satisfied with how we went. We were always on the lap record pace and no one made a mistake.”

“It’s not for the World Championship, but for second place the battle will be very high level. Me, Dani and Jorge are all very strong and our teams are all working at the top. Jorge is in great shape and I’m very worried about him! Our target is to win again. I think that Marc deserves the championship; he won a lot of races and in a lot of conditions. He doesn’t make mistakes and he improved his level so congratulations to Marc,” he finished.



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