Rossi says points for Le Mans second place “like gold”

Starting from seventh on the grid, Rossi fought his way up take the runner-up spot at Le Mans behind Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who dominated the weekend.

With erstwhile points leader Marquez crashing and scoring only three points for a 13th place finish, it means Rossi now sits only 12 points away from the top of the standings, with 78 points to Lorenzo’s 90.

Marquez, who led by 17 points coming into Le Mans, slips to second on 85.

“I kept calm, I managed to make a good recovery with some good passes,” said Rossi. “These 20 points are like gold because we are closer to the top of the championship.

“The three of us are now split by 12 points, so the fight is going to be great.”

While admitting that a poor start helped Lorenzo make his escape at the head of the field, Rossi also explained that a lack of trust in the new-spec Michelin soft rear tyre caused his crew to waste time on Friday.

“The issue was that we focused on setting up the bike with the Jerez tyres, because we didn’t expect that the '47' [soft compound] would be so much better,” said the Italian.

“In reality, we lost the whole of Friday working on a tyre we didn’t use in the race. And when you want to win, it has to be like it was in Jerez, you have to be competitive on Saturday.”

Marquez crash resets the field

Lorenzo said that Marquez’s crash effectively put the three main title contenders back to square one, after the reigning champion’s DNF in Argentina and Rossi’s Austin crash.

“I had the impression [before] that maybe I could win the race with Marquez in second place, and would just recover five points,” said Lorenzo.

“The Yamaha at this moment is a more complete bike, but we were behind in the championship because I made a mistake in Argentina, Rossi made a mistake in Austin and Marquez didn’t crash.

“Finally, it was Marquez’s mistake today, so in some ways we are starting from zero in the next races.”