Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi admitted that although he only finished a couple of seconds behind yesterday’s Qatar MotoGP winner Jorge Lorenzo, he didn’t have enough pace to be in the podium fight.

The Doctor ended in fourth and was on the rear wheel of both Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso but said he just didn’t have the speed to make a pass. However, he tempered that by saying he knows he is competitive and maybe it would have been different with the soft rear as used by his Movistar Yamaha team-mate.

“At the end it was a great race, the pace was very fast from the beginning to the end, but unfortunately I stayed behind and I didn’t have enough speed to try and attack. I was there but I was never in the real fight, I was always a little bit behind. We need a faster pace and maybe the tyre choice can make some difference, but we don’t know. Maybe with the soft tyre I could go faster or I could go slower,” said Rossi.

“We arrived behind and unfortunately didn’t get on the podium, but it was a good race anyway, with a good start. We are there, we have to work, but for sure we are competitive. Last year in Argentina was a great race, one of the best with a great pace and I was coming from behind, but this year it will be a different story, especially with the tyres. We need to understand our potential this year.”

Get tomorrow’s free issue of the BSN app for all the Qatar news, reaction and gossip. Click here