Valentino Rossi admits his Movistar Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was faster and stronger at Aragon, and says the team now needs to become more competitive for the final races.

The Doctor finished third behind Lorenzo while Marc Marquez took the win, although the Italian did have a try on the penultimate lap to move inside Lorenzo, but ended up running wide and ruining any chance of gaining a place.

And he says his team-mate was simply faster today. “We worked during the weekend to try to be stronger on the second half of the race but unfortunately it doesn’t work like we wanted,” he said.

“I did the maximum but Lorenzo in the second half of the race was stronger, was faster than me. And he could catch me and overtake me and go in front.

“But I was there, from behind I can stay with him and I want to try to make the fight on the last lap but unfortunately in the T11 I did a mistake in braking. I braked and I was a little bit too fast so it was too dangerous and I decide to cut the corner and go wide if not, we can crash and disaster,”

With 52 points separating Rossi and Marquez in the title fight, he now has the threat of Lorenzo creeping back up after the Spaniard reduced the gap from second to third to 14 points.

But Rossi says he isn’t thinking about it at this point. “I don’t want to think of the championship, we just need to work, to stay concentrated and in three weeks we will go to the overseas races that I always like a lot and usually our bike is strong there, so we have to fight and try to arrive on the podium and especially try to fight for the victory.

“We don’t win since Barcelona and it looks like the Honda and especially the Suzuki is growing up a lot. In the last races they won a lot of races with different riders and we need to understand and try to be competitive for the last part of the championship.

“The important thing is to make good races, try to not make mistakes, take points, arrive on the podium and especially try to win. Fifty-two points are a lot, at the same time the fight for the second place is quite close.

“Also, Marquez and Lorenzo are very strong in the next races to the end and it is like now we are on the last part and we need to be competitive, try to be competitive everywhere.”