A two-sided Sunday in the Yamaha camp. If Rossi is smiling, Jorge Lorenzo's mood is anything but cheerful. Despite his lightning fast start, the Spaniard struggled for much of the race, so much that he lost ground and positions to his rivals. As if that weren't enough, the contact with Iannone forced him to raise the white flag.

Let's begin straight away with the contact with Iannone.

“What bothers me the most is that he did not even have the courage to apologise. Everyone saw what happened, but all he wanted to know was whether I had some problem with the bike or the engine. Fortunately I was not injured, but just took a knock.”

This isn't the first time this has happened...

“It already happened with Dovizioso and today it happened to me. Andrea always does that. He's dangerous. He never acknowledges his faults. He always thinks it's the other rider's fault or just hard luck, but everyone can make mistakes. Apologising to me would have been the least he could have done, since I could have broken my collarbone or hip.”

At Assen he will start from the last row.

“That doesn't change anything, because in a few laps he will still be able to recover. In football, when a player commits a serious foul, he is ejected and misses the next match or several matches. In motorcycle racing, on the other hand, you have to commit several infractions to be punished. I remember a time when I did something wrong at Sepang and race direction decided to make me miss the next race.”

Do you think the rules are wrong?

“The rule on points should be revised. In fact, I will mention that in the meeting at Assen with the Safety Commission. You have to commit four infractions before you have a penalty, because the first time you start from the last row, then you start from pit lane, but it changes almost nothing. We are not protected the right way. Only if he does something crazy will a rider be stopped.”

Let's talk about the race. You started strong but then struggled. Why?

“Over the distance I knew that my performance would drop. In fact, my goal was to bring home as many points as possible for the championship. We didn't have much grip and I struggled a lot, whereas Rossi was good in these conditions, showing that he has talent and speed. He rode a great race. He is riding very well and is a great example and motivation for all the riders because he is showing that you can be very fast even after such a long career.”

There was a rapprochement between Rossi and Marquez. Valentino said that when he came back to Yamaha he was always the one who approached you, but after last year you have never taken a step forward.

“I prefer not to answer this question, since I don't feel like fuelling pointless controversy.”