Valentino Rossi says he is “not fast enough” to challenge for the 2018 MotoGP title, despite claiming pole and his second successive podium in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.
Rossi and Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales – who was eighth in the Mugello race – have struggled this season in low-grip conditions with the M1's electronics, but seem to have made a breakthrough with the bike at a test in Barcelona last week.
The Italian claimed his first pole since Motegi '16 with a record lap of 1:46.206s at Mugello, and was able to fend off Suzuki duo Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins on Sunday for third.
Now second in the standings and 23 points from the top, Rossi admits he is “not far”, but doesn't believe the Yamaha has the speed yet relative to his competitors to fight for an eighth premier class championship.
“For me, not really for me personally, because to fight for the championship we have to go faster,” Rossi said when asked if Yamaha was now ready to challenge this year.
“If you check the rankings, 23 points [from leader Marc Marquez] is not a lot, for sure, and me and all my team and Yamaha will give the maximum.
“But in this moment, I am not fast enough to win the championship We need to improve, especially in the race.
“But being there is good, we don't throw away nothing, and I'm happy.”
Rossi says Sunday's 23-lap race was “one of the toughest” for a while, as the high heat meant he had to go with the hard front tyre, which made the Yamaha "very difficult" to ride.
“I know that in the race we suffer more because unfortunately we have to race with the hard tyre in the front, and I never had a good feeling during the practice,” he said.
“At the end, we cannot make a difference; to arrive at the end, I have to use that tyre. Was one of the toughest races that I remember in the last period, because the bike was very difficult to ride in the low grip level in the front.
“I had a small hope that Rins, [Danilo] Petrucci, Iannone have the softer tyres compared to me, so maybe I can have a small advantage at the end and I try to do the maximum.
“But after Iannone didn't give up, the last laps were very, very strong. But in the end, to arrive in the podium is my target and I'm very happy.”
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