Valentino Rossi believes too many crashes, mistakes and the engine failure at Mugello meant he was never in the fight for this year’s MotoGP championship.

The Doctor secured second in the title chase behind Marc Marquez at Sepang but couldn’t match the Spaniard’s consistency across 2016. Marquez has scored points in every racer apart from Phillip Island, whereas Rossi failed to finish at Austin, Mugello, Assen and Motegi - a potential 100 points.

"I'm quite satisfied, because we have a lot of podiums. I want to try to win a bit more, but it's like this. And also my speed was good, I was quite competitive. But I'm not fully satisfied, because at the end, I was never in the race for the championship, because I did too many mistakes, and I lose a lot of points in Mugello,” said Rossi at Sepang.

"To be completely happy, I want to try to fight for the championship and this year with Marquez, he always had too much advantage in the points."