Valentino Rossi has admitted he and crew chief David Munoz had to fight Yamaha to make big changes to the 2020 M1 that allowed him to fight for the Jerez MotoGP podium yesterday.

Rossi revealed Iwata bosses preferred him to change his style to ride more like Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo instead of changing the bike but The Doctor put up a fight.

“We change a lot the setting of the bike from Friday. Unfortunately, we have to push a lot on Yamaha because they don’t want,” said Rossi, speaking at the track.

“But I feel better. For sure it is very difficult because there are a lot of riders that are strong, but this weekend, I ride, I ride my bike.

“We are not perfect but I recover the good feeling, the balance that I like and I can enter in the corner faster and also stress less the tyre.

“We have to work hard because with David, we have to put pressure on Yamaha because sometimes it’s something political. It’s a political problem. We want to change the bike and we don’t give up.

“And from Friday morning I have a better feeling. Sincerely, this time my team helped me a lot, because they give me a light at the end of the tunnel, they give me another bike.”

“When you ride the same bike as Fabio and Maverick and they are able to be so fast, so strong, Yamaha thinks that I have to ride like them.

But they need to support me, because I’m here in the factory team and next year I will race with Petronas, so they have to trust me, because I think that maybe I’m not faster on the track but I can make good races.”

Rossi hadn’t stood on the podium, since the Austin race in 2019 and said he had been ready to throw in the towel on more than one occasion.

“It was very special, because coming from last week, which was very frustrating. But it wasn’t just last week, it was the majority of 2019, apart from the two podiums at the beginning of the season.

“I always have the same problem, sometimes worse, sometimes a little bit better, but I did some bad races.

“At the end, we don’t give up and from Friday morning we do something different and already from lap three I feel better, I feel a better bike for me, a better position in the corner, something more for my style.

“We have a lot of work to do, we improved the bike but for sure this game is very difficult because there are a lot of riders that are so fast.

The result of last week was too bad to be real, also if I’m old, and I said ‘fuck, not like this’.

“After the races like last week, or like Valencia or Aragon when we arrived very bad, we looked at our faces and we didn’t have the words.

“We said, ‘Maybe it’s time to stay at home.’ And because we already take the decision to race next year, I was also a little bit worried because I didn’t enjoy, I didn’t have fun when I rode the bike.

“And it’s very frustrating because I have the same problems for a long time.”