Jorge Lorenzo's chances of retaining his MotoGP World title took another blow today when he was beaten again by Repsol Honfa wunderkind Marc Marquez and the Spaniard admits the situation is now worse than before Silverstone.
The Factory Yamaha looked set to make it three wins in a row today but he was reeled in by the youngster even after he took a trip off the track as a result of a collision with team-mate Dani Pedrosa.
Lorenzo is now 39 points in arrears with four races left, one of those being Honda's home track of Motegi, where the Yamaha man will face not only a circuit perfectly suited to the RC213V but also fuel consumption issues. Cal Crutchlow, on the satellite YZR-M1, actually ran out of fuel before the race finished last year.
"We were excited to win the last two races, the championship was less impossible than before but now it is more or less like Silverstone or even worse. The mathematics say we can still win the championship so we have to believe, we have to still be motivated and still have the hunger to keep winning," said Lorenzo, speaking at Aragon.
"I make a very good laptime in the qualifying but I knew for the pace we were not so prepared. I try my best in the first laps, open a gap and then happen the strange things with Marc and Dani so I put in two seconds but in five or six laps he recover me.
"I slow down to try and recover some energy. He push and I was with him but at the limit with some mistakes so we needed more tenths to fight like Silverstone."