Valentino Rossi says his fourth-place finish in the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix is Yamaha's “potential” more so than its podium charge in Thailand two weeks ago.
Yamaha seemed to make a breakthrough at Buriram when Rossi led for half of the race, while Maverick Vinales was just under three tenths from the win in third.
After finishing Friday inside the top three on the timesheets at Motegi, Vinales felt Yamaha had “confirmed” its Thailand breakthrough – though Rossi was less confident.
Qualifying ninth after a mistake with tyre pressures in his last run, Rossi made his way up to the podium battle early on but struggled to match the pace of Suzukia duo Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone ahead, and eventually finished just under five seconds from the rostrum in fourth.
Admitting Yamaha made a “step” with the M1 ahead of the race, Rossi concedes his Motegi result remains the Iwata marque's “potential”.
“The fourth place is not too bad, I think we work well because from the warm-up we make another step and I feel better with the bike,” said Rossi, who is now just nine points from second-placed Andrea Dovizioso in the standings after the Ducati rider crashed late in the race.
“So I start quite optimistic, trying to fight for the podium, but unfortunately the two Suzukis and also [Cal] Crutchlow are faster than me.
“I tried not to give up and not make any mistakes, and try to arrive at the end with a good pace. But our potential is this, is more this than Thailand unfortunately.”
Teammate Vinales was a further six seconds behind the Italian in seventh after struggling “more than usual” with bike, revealing a set-up solution from Thailand failed to return the podium form he showed at Buriram.
“Well it's more than usual, we are struggling a lot with the bike,” Vinales admitted.
“We are not able to be fast on the races, and today we tried to try something different on the bike for the race but it didn't work so much.
“So we follow another line from Buriram to see if that works, but finally it wasn't like that.
“I couldn't ride like I wanted to, so we need to keep working and trying to stay focused on the way we manage the race weekend, and stay strong.
“We are going to try to do our best again on Phillip Island, and we'll try to see where we stand.”
