Rossi gives his take: "Marquez has cost me the title"

After several laps of intense battling over third place, Rossi and Marquez's duel came to a head on the seventh lap at Turn 14, where Rossi forced Marquez wide and made contact, the Spaniard crashing as a result.

Rossi eventually finished third, and was allowed to keep the place by race direction - but was demoted to the back of the grid for the Valencia title decider in two weeks' time.

With a seven-point advantage over Lorenzo, Rossi must now ensure he finishes second if his Yamaha teammate wins the race.

But speaking to the media about his clash with Marquez, he fears this will be an impossible task - and that therefore, Marquez has cost Rossi any chance of taking a 10th world title.

"Marc has demonstrated that what I said in the press conference [on Thursday] was true," said Rossi. “I thought that if I exposed him, it would make him think – but his reaction was the opposite.

"He has succeeded, I have lost the title.

"I did not want him to crash, that was not my intention, I only aimed to take him off line because I was fed up, then I wanted to take off and escape.

"We touched, but it is not true that I kicked him; it is he who touched me with his handlebars on my leg, which then slipped from the foot-peg.

"It's a bad outcome for all. It would have been nice to face off against Lorenzo [at Valencia], but Marc has decided that he had to settle it in his favour."