Valentino Rossi has lo𒈔st sixth in the world championship to rookie Fabio Quartararo after fa♔lling from eleventh place in the closing stages of Sunday's Japanese MotoGP.

The Italian had qual💞ified down in tenth position, then lost four places on the opening lap and could only mount a minor recovery by the time he suffered his fourth DNF o🎉f the season.

Co🐲untryꦆman Andrea Iannone (Aprilia) was the only other rider to fall.

"I started quite bad, not in the first corner, but after that I was in the middle of the chaos and lost time," said the Monster༒ Yamaha rider. "Then my pace was not good enough to recover positions fast. I ma𒀰naged to recovered a few, but I was not very strong.

"On some laps my pace was not so bad, but everybody was fast so it was very difficult to recover from behind. And at the end – I haven't seen the data yet – but I think I made a small mis🐲take in Turn 1, clos𝐆ed the front and crashed.

"But anyway it was a difficult race."

In an effort to get back on terms with team-mate Maverick Vinales and Petronas Yamaha star Q♌uartararo, Rossi switched away from the new carbon fibre swingarm and double exhaust this weekend.

The Doctor also experimented with braking technique but♕, while feeling he had a more consistent pace than i🔥n the previous races, still wasn't fast enough.

"I think this time I was stronger compared to the last two races but I started too far back. My potential was to be with Rins [7th] and Crutchlow 💟[5th], I had the same pac꧒e as them," he said.

"My𝄹 pace was quite constant until the end, so for that reason we were going better. But anyway, it's a bit of a difficult moment becuase in the last races we are not fast enough. We don’t have the speed that 🉐we want.

"W🐲e have to beജ faster to be able to fight for better positions."

A fourth podium in the last⛦ six races has put Quartararo 18 points ahead of Rossi, with Petronas team-mate Franco Morbidelli (tenth) now the only Yamaha rider behind Rossi in the championship standings.

The good news for Rossi is that he&n✤bsp;heads straight to one of his favourite tracks, Phillip Island in Australia, where he will attempt to end the now 13-race podium dr💫ought.

"Phillip Island is always great, because the track is one of the best," he said. "But we will have to look at the data and see if we can unders⭕tand how to be faster there."