Yamaha's Rossi and Lorenzo expecting Marquez MotoGP charge

Marquez - who started 2014 with 10 straight victories - has only won once in the '15 season's first five grands prix, as Rossi and Lorenzo split the other wins.

A first-corner incident in Qatar, crashing out in a brush with Rossi in Argentina, breaking a finger in a motocross crash before Spain and then struggling to fourth in France all contributed to Marquez being fourth in the standings, 33 points adrift.

Lorenzo dismissed any suggestion that Marquez was on the ropes.

"Some will say Marc is in crisis, but we all have the talent, and wait for all circumstances to be correct," he said.

"So Marc's time will come and he will win races and be competitive in the future. Honda are better than last year."

Rossi pointed out that Lorenzo had appeared out of contention before back-to-back wins at Jerez and Le Mans brought him back to second in the championship.

"After the first three races they said Jorge was in crisis, then he won two races," said Rossi.

"This could happen to Marc. He's a two-time world champion and a rider with incredible talent, so he can arrive in Mugello and win with no surprise."

WHAT HAPPENED TO HONDA IN FRANCE?

Polesitter Marquez slid backwards in the Le Mans race before salvaging fourth after a huge battle with Andrea Iannone.

Conditions changed dramatically over the French GP weekend, with cold temperatures for practice and qualifying giving way to a hot race day - when track temperatures doubled from a previous high of 21 degrees centigrade to 42.

The frontrunners all stuck with the softer tyres they had used on Friday and Saturday as they had no data on the harder compounds, and Bridgestone's chief engineer Masao Azuma suggested that caused the shake-up in competitiveness.

"Some riders commented that the feeling from their bike was quite different in the race," he said.

"This suggests some bikes coped better with the change in temperature than others.

"Some riders complained of a vague feeling from the front of the bike, particularly early on in the race, and this can happen when riders are pushing with a full fuel-load on circuits with low grip levels."

DID YOU KNOW...

...Marquez's current 33-point deficit is the furthest behind he has been in any title race since August 2011, when he trailed Stefan Bradl by 43 points in Moto2.

His rookie season in the intermediate class had begun with three crashes, but seven subsequent wins brought him to within three points of Bradl before a further accident at Sepang ended his campaign.

His previous biggest MotoGP points deficit was a 30-point gap to Pedrosa after six races in 2013, prior to the mid-season turnaround that launched him to the title as a rookie.