Video: Marc Marquez crashes out in Catalunya MotoGP; has he crashed out of the title race too?

DESPERATE times call for desperate measures, and Marc Marquez was a desperate man. But does this crash signal the end of his MotoGP title hopes?

DESPARATE times call for desperate measures and, with his MotoGP title hopes creeping away like the blue bike in front of him, Marc Marquez was a desperate man.

Knowing he needed to hang onto Jorge Lorenzo’s coat-tails if he was to stand any chance of winning the Catalunya Grand Prix, he took his ill-handling Honda by the scruff of its neck and rode it to its absolute limits.

On the fourth lap he lost the battle and, likely, this year’s world championship.

REPORT: LORENZO GOES FOURTH; MARQUEZ TUMBLES AGAIN

RESULTS: CLICK HERE FOR FULL RESULTS FROM CATALUNYA GP

He lost control at the end of the back straight under heavy braking for the La Caixa hairpin, somehow avoiding spearing into the back of Lorenzo — although the Yamaha rider was adamant that he did in fact brush him — on his way into the gravel.

The impact of the bike hitting the ground bent the gear lever, ending Marquez’s day.

“I tried to give 100 per cent at my home race but I made a mistake trying to push too much,” Marquez said.

“I wanted to do well — at all costs — and these things can happen.”

It is Marquez’s second crash in as many races, leaving him languishing in fifth place in the standings a whole 69 points behind points leader Valentino Rossi.

While his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa showed the troublesome RC213V is capable of podium finishes, Marquez knows he needs to be ahead of the dominant Yamahas of Rossi and teammate Jorge Lorenzo if he is to begin clawing back his deficit in points.

“Sure I can finish the race 20 seconds behind them but you know it is not my style,” he told Motomatters.com.

“(On Saturday) I say that now I am at the point where I need to take risks if I want to win this championship but I cannot lose any race.”

Lorenzo has now taken four wins on the bounce, leading every single lap along the way. He asserts his dominance from the beginning, setting a crushing pace in the opening laps and forcing his rivals to submit.

Marquez tried to go with him at Mugello, but could not live with the No. 99 Yamaha in the Italian circuit’s fast, sweeping bends.

At the slightly tighter Catalunya layout he sensed his chance. If he could sneak ahead of Lorenzo and force him to fight for the lead, maybe it would disrupt his Spanish rival’s rhythm enough to allow Marquez to work some magic.

“The thing is that these first two laps I was able to follow (Lorenzo) but always at the limit, always riding really smooth,” he added.

“When you are trying to follow them you need to ride 100 per cent on the limit and then when you do a small mistake, like Mugello and here, you lose the race.

“But for me my mentality it was the only way to win this championship. I tried.”

Now, neither time nor maths is on his side.

Even if Marquez can win the final 11 races on the trot — one more than he managed when his bike was on song at the start of last year — it will not be enough.

Both Rossi and Lorenzo can afford to finish second to him at every race and still win the title in a canter.

His only hopes now are for Honda to rediscover the magic that appears to be missing from their 2015-spec machine, Yamaha’s stars to come unstuck, or both.

Originally published as Video: Marc Marquez crashes out in Catalunya MotoGP; has he crashed out of the title race too?