Movistar Yamaha's Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo are refusing to completely rule out Marc Marquez's chances of reclaiming his MotoGP title.

Marquez is 69 points behind Rossi after crashing out of second place at Catalunya and the odds are stacked against the Repsol Honda rider holding on to his crown.

However, Rossi is reluctant to dismiss Marquez's chances altogether.

"For me, I don't want to say that it's completely closed, also because it's a technical situation. Like Jorge said before, now we are faster, we are constant, especially in the races where we take the points.

"And we have to take as many points as possible in this situation because Ducati and especially Honda now have some problems, but if they can fix the problems before the middle of the championship then in the second part of the championship Marquez and Pedrosa could be stronger than us and recover the points. So I think it's too early."

Likewise, Catalunya winner Lorenzo echoed Rossi's views that Honda could mount a strong comeback in the second half of the season.

"This is the seventh race. We didn't arrive to the middle of the championship yet," said Lorenzo.

"If this happens to Dovi and to Marc, also it can happen in the second part of the championship to us. We can lose the same points that they lose, the same as them.

"You know, we are very constant. Vale and myself don't used to crash so much, but can happen that we crash three times and we lose all the points in those three races."

Asked is Marquez was too aggressive and needed to exercise some restraint, Rossi joked: "Marc is very friendly. He wants to stay very close, always touching! Maybe this is also his instinct in the race - he wants to try to go in your bike!"

Lorenzo commented: "I don't need to respond. You can see my face."