Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi says it will be hard to beat Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa and team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on their home turf at the Aragon MotoGP round this weekend as he has struggled at the Spanish track in the past.

Rossi was turned over by Pedrosa in the race last year after having a difficult time in practice and qualifying and says he is thinking more about the championship now where he needs to gain nine points over Marquez at every race, starting on Sunday.

“I think in this weekend it will be a little bit more difficult because this track is not one of the best for me and also last year we struggled a lot during the practice, but at the end the race was quite good. I was strong and I enjoyed a lot the battle,” said Rossi, speaking at the track.

“We have to start from that point and try to be competitive because for sure, here, all the Spanish riders are very difficult to beat. Second place is a lot less important than winning the championship. It's more or less on the same level because winning races is great but we need to try to do both.”