Andrea Dovizioso said he wasn’t riding over the limit and a small mistake is why he crashed out of the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi, subsequently handing Marc Marquez his fifth MotoGP crown in Japan.

The Italian needed to beat Marquez in order to keep the World Championship alive and looked as if he had a chance of doing so, sat right behind the Spaniard on the penultimate lap of the race. Unfortunately for the Italian, he lost the front end of his factory Ducati.

With Dovizioso crashing out of the race, Marquez went on to win the race easily and won the title. Dovi said that his crash wasn’t a cause of being over the limit, but instead made a small mistake.

"I tried to win the race, but I wasn't over the limit when I crashed,” said the factory Ducati rider.

"I just made a small mistake because I wanted to prepare to the exit in a better way, because I was accelerating really good, but I couldn't get close enough to Marc and try to overtake him in braking.

"I did a lap and a half like this and I wanted to do this immediately, and I did a small mistake. I had a lot of angle when I prepare the corner and it was too early. I asked for too much from the front tyre.”

Despite forming a rivalry with Marquez over the last 18 months, there has always been a level of respect between Dovizioso and Marquez and the Italian wanted to congratulate the World Champion on his achievement.

“I think he did something special,” he said.

“He tried to stay with me until the last seven laps, so we can just congratulate him.

"They did another special year. They won, this is normal because they did something better than everybody, he has more than 100 points to everybody.”