Rossi: Marquez strong everywhere now

Valentino Rossi says Marc Marquez is ‘very strong everywhere’ this year which makes the challenge of catching the defending MotoGP world champion even tougher heading to a circuit the Repsol Honda rider dominates at.

Marquez has claimed every single pole position and race win in his MotoGP premier class career at Sachsenring, while he remains undefeated stretching back to 2010 at the German track, as he also holds momentum from a stunning victory at Assen last time out.

Rossi, who sits second behind Marquez in the riders’ world championship, fears Marquez is demonstrating pace he can be fast at any type of circuit this year which will make cutting into his 41-point lead even trickier.

Consequently, the Movistar Yamaha rider is eager to focus on a race-by-race approach to improve his YZR-M1 starting at Sachsenring where he struggled to fifth place 12 months ago.

“Marc is very strong everywhere so you have the first part that is very tight and after it becomes medium-fast and after that he becomes even faster,” Rossi said. “I don’t know if we have a particular part where we lose or if it is a little bit everywhere.

“Last year we suffered very much, for me was very difficult because we had a lot of understeer. In a tight track like this we suffered. We hope with the bike of this year I expect, I hope, to be stronger.

“I’m second in the championship but I am already a bit far from Marc but we have to concentrate race by race and try to be competitive.

“Last year it was quite a bad race for us as we struggled very much so we have to give the maximum to be competitive.”

Rossi’s last podium success at Sachsenring came in 2015 while his previous victory in Germany came almost a decade ago in 2009 for Yamaha on his way to his most recent world title.