Yamaha: Rossi was 'too aggressive'

Yamaha management have told Valentino Rossi that he was too aggressive in his defence of third position against team-mate and title leader Jorge Lorenzo in the closing stages of Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.

Lorenzo was faster than Rossi at the end of the race and the pair swapped places six times over the last two laps - and made contact several times - before Rossi held on to the final rostrum position.

"I think that Valentino's actions in the race were not correct towards Lorenzo," GPone.com reports Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director of Lin Jarvis as saying.

"After the race, Jorge came to us and asked our opinion of Rossi's behaviour during the race. There were four of us. Besides me, there was Furusawa and another two people from Yamaha.

"We, together, were in agreement with the fact that a battle like that between team-mates makes no sense. We expect our riders to race with a higher margin of safety and they were too close today.

"After that, Furusawa went to talk to Valentino, and he asked him to adopt a different approach when racing other Yamaha riders.

"We made our position clear. The race was too tight and too difficult. You don't do this; especially considering the situation in the championship.

"There is no implication of wrongdoing [by Rossi], otherwise Race Direction would have intervened. But a rider can be very aggressive, or too aggressive. Valentino was too aggressive.

"From a sporting perspective races might be more boring and less spectacular [without these kinds of battles]. But we don't want riders ending up in the gravel. We expect the riders to respect one another."

Lorenzo, who is staying at Yamaha for the next two season, can win the title at Sepang on Sunday.

Seven time champion Rossi, out of the 2010 title fight after breaking his leg earlier in the year, is moving to Ducati next season.