91�ȱ�

Dani Pedrosa must have walked under too many ladders because you could not script what happened at the Aragon Grand Prix on Sunday, or what has happened this season for him.

He was one of the favourites for the title at the start of the year but the emergence of Marc Marquez, crashes and pure bad luck means he misses out again.

In Sunday's race, he was involved in a good battle with his team-mate Marquez until he crashed out with 18 laps to go.

It looked like his bike had just flipped after he passed Marquez, but I got it wrong because their two bikes did touch.

It transpired that Marquez's elbow pad skimmed the back of the rear disc of Pedrosa's Honda bike and broke the wire to the traction control system.

Consequently, Pedrosa tapped on the power and the electronic traction control system did not work and he was thrown off the bike.

I have never known anything like that before. It was a freak occurrence and it seems the lad is destined never to win a championship.

I am sure the contact from Marquez was inadvertent, but if I was the Yamaha team manager [second-placed Jorge Lorenzo's team] I would be up at race direction saying: "Marc Marquez - who has already bumped into people this season - has run into his team-mate now, causing the wire to come out."

If he was guilty of that he would then be given more penalty points, which in theory would mean he starts from the back of the grid in the next race.

That is all hypothetical and I am sure it would get quashed because Honda would probably say the contact was not the reason the wire came out - but I would not be surprised if Yamaha have been up there, just trying it on.

Regardless, it was a shame the crash happened because it was developing into an intriguing three-way battle for the race.

Pedrosa had the best tyres - or at least the tyres that would have stood the distance - and it looked like it would have kept him in the championship fight, but now it is a two-horse race. The win for championship leader Marquez at Aragon means the 59-point gap between himself and Pedrosa is too great.

All Pedrosa can do is focus on 2014, he still has a contract with Honda and will have a decent motorcycle.

His only hope for this season is if Marquez has some bad luck - but Marquez seems to have got a rabbit foot somewhere because he has all the luck, although he is simply the master at the moment.

It was a faultless performance from him at Aragon, he had tremendous pace and he did everything right.

Now he can finish third in the final four races and still win the championship - even if Jorge Lorenzo wins them all.

You can't bet against him winning again in Malaysia - he has the speed to do so - and he could have it all wrapped up by the time of the race in Australia on 20 October.

Steve Parrish was talking to 91�ȱ� Sport's Gary Rose