Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi believes it will be hard to keep hold of third place in the 2018 MotoGP championship chase and expects to be caught and passed by Jorge Lorenzo before the season is out.

Rossi has a 29-point lead over Lorenzo and also team-mate Maverick Vinales but sees his former stablemate as the biggest threat and also thinks the M1 will struggle in the heat of Buriram this weekend.

“On paper it will be hard because the track is not very good for the M1 but for sure we will try. The weather is difficult as it is very, very hot and can rain every day so we hope first of all for a dry race,” said Rossi, speaking at the track,” said Rossi, speaking at the track.

“We did the test in February, was not fantastic but anyway we are in a difficult moment so we have to try to stay concentrate and take as much as possible.

“With the speed that we demonstrate during the season, third position is a good achievement at this moment, I have 29 points advantage on Maverick but also Lorenzo. Especially in the second part of the season he is very strong, so I think it will be very difficult to keep the third position but we have to try and we see.”