Rossi still drawing motivation from “stolen” 2015 title

Rossi admitted in an official MotoGP website interview earlier this month that the events of 2015 - when the Italian accused rivals Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo of working together to deny him the championship - were having a knock-on effect on his performance this season.

However, in an interview with BT Sport, the 37-year-old Italian said that the defeat is also supplying him with extra motivation to succeed as he reaches the home stretch of his top-line career.

Rossi also said he felt Marquez's actions in the final three races of the season at Phillip Island, Sepang and Valencia detracted from Lorenzo's achievement in securing his third premier class title.

Asked if Lorenzo and Marquez stole his championship, Rossi said: “First of all, it’s very clear they stole the championship, and in a very bad way. In a way that nobody expected, so it was very bad.

“I did a very good season with a lot of points, 320 points. And nine [times] out of 10 you win the championship.

“But from one side you have a great and fantastic year from Lorenzo, who also respond to me, race by race, point by point. Incredible.

“Before the last three races he deserved the championship for sure, because he won two races more than me.

"But what happened in the last three [races] was unbelievable. The behaviour of Marquez was embarrassing. I think this takes out some value also from the championship of Lorenzo."

He added: “So, for this reason, it’s very important to take this extra power and extra motivation.

"Because the first reaction is [to be] angry. Nervous. Make mistakes. Become also more dangerous. Because you still have something still open with the other guys. But the difficulty is to modify this into positive power.”