Sports · Motorsport · 49 mins ago
Rossi says 2015 MotoGP title loss to Lorenzo still hurts
Valentino Rossi has revisited his 2015 MotoGP title defeat in a new autobiography and a television interview.
That season, the Italian was competing with fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo for the championship.
Rossi says Marc Marquez, who was not in the title fight, rode to make Rossi lose.
Their clash at Malaysia’s Sepang race led to a penalty for Rossi, who had to start from the back of the grid at the final race in Valencia.
Lorenzo won the championship, while Rossi finished without the title he had hoped to claim.
Rossi says the episode still makes him angry and that he is trying to focus instead on the championships he won; his autobiography revisits his career and rivalries.
Valentino Rossi says the events of the 2015 MotoGP title battle still hurt and make him angry.
In a new autobiography and a television interview, he again accused Marc Marquez of trying to make him lose the championship.
Rossi was competing with Jorge Lorenzo for the title, while Marquez was out of contention.
Rossi was penalised after a clash with Marquez at the Malaysian Grand Prix and started the Valencia finale from the back of the grid.
Lorenzo won the title, and Rossi says his feelings about the loss remain much as they were that night in Valencia.
- Who
- Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo.
- What
- Rossi says Marquez tried to make him lose the 2015 MotoGP title, and that the episode still hurts.
- When
- The title battle took place in 2015. Rossi discussed it again in an interview published in November 2026.
- Where
- The disputed clash took place at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang; the season finale was in Valencia.
- Why
- Rossi believes Marquez was trying to prevent him from winning the championship.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Rossi and Marquez had a controversial clash during the race at Sepang.
Rossi started from the back of the grid after a penalty, and Lorenzo won the championship.
Rossi discussed the 2015 title battle in a television interview while promoting his new autobiography.
- Title winner
- Jorge Lorenzo
- Rossi’s penalty
- Back-of-the-grid start for the Valencia finale
- Rossi’s autobiography
- La Mia Storia, according to Motorsport.com
- Interview programme
- Che Tempo Che Fa
- Publication date of Crash.net article
- 9 November 2026
3 sources
What people are saying
He was only fighting to make me lose, and in the end, he succeeded.
More than 10 years have passed, but the feeling and my state of mind when I think about it are the same as they were on that night in Valencia, and that worries me a little.
But that’s how sport is: what you lose hurts much more than what you win.