Marquez unable to explain "really strange" Argentina crash

MotoGP champion Marc Marquez says he can't find an explanation for his "really strange" crash out of the lead of the Argentinian Grand Prix.

The Honda rider got the best of the start from pole, and quickly distanced himself from his pursuers to lead by 2.248 seconds after three laps.

However Marquez then lost the front of his Honda braking at Turn 2 and crashed out of the race, with teammate Dani Pedrosa having an almost identical accident 10 laps later.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Marquez said when asked why he fell. “The crash was really strange. I was just at 25 degrees lean angle.

“I was completely straight on that brake point, OK I locked the front and for some reason it was not ready enough, the tyre.

“I was feeling really good with the bike. I was pushing, but not a lot.

“It was just my mistake. Of course I’m really disappointed with me, because I know that these kind of mistakes can impact a lot on the championship, but now it’s already done.”

Marquez said he was surprised by his early lead, feeling he was “not extremely fast” but had simply settled into the race pace earlier than his pursuers.

“After three or four laps the others also got into 1m39.8s, 1m39s-high, 1m40s-low,” he said. “That was the rhythm of the race, for that reason I was leading the race."

Pedrosa caught out by bumps

Pedrosa's crash came while he was fighting for fourth in the second group, the Spaniard having just passed Johann Zarco's Tech 3 Yamaha and Danilo Petrucci's Pramac Ducati.

The Spaniard says his crash was caused by him "losing the front in the bumps."

He added: "In general, this weekend was difficult for the stability of the bike, over the bumps it was really hard to keep the bike quiet.

"So in the race I was stuck with Petrucci because he was very late-braking and very hard on the gas, with a lot of top speed and acceleration on the new tyres. It was very difficult to pass him.

"Once I could be free, I set quite a good laptime - but just right in the next lap I crash. So unfortunately I crash twice this weekend with the same tyre, I don't know if it's really related to that or not."