Honda’s Marquez, who sits fourth in the riders’ standings, currently trails Rossi by 65 points and only has two victories so far this year, seven less than he had amassed by the same stage in 2014.

The Spaniard ended a six-race winless run by scoring maximum points at the German GP earlier this month, and Yamaha rider Rossi believes that it would be foolish to discount the two-time world champion just yet.

“We don’t want to make the stupid mistake of thinking that Marquez can’t win the championship,” said Rossi, who has recorded three victories this season.

“Now he is quite far behind, but he will be very strong.

“I think there are three tracks coming up after the break where Marc is particularly strong; Indianapolis, Brno and Silverstone.”

Rossi hopes to add an eighth MotoGP world championship to his repertoire and currently has 179 points, 13 clear of second-placed Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

With the season to resume at Indianapolis on August 7-9 after the summer break, the Italian says he remains confident heading into the final nine rounds.

“I know that the battle will be very hard in the second half of the season, but we have some tracks left where we will be very competitive, where we can fight for more wins,” Rossi said.

“Last year I had a very strong second part of the season, and this year we are in an even stronger position.”