Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez is mystifed by the crash that not only ended his chances of winning a seventh-straight race at Austin but also robbed him of the series lead.

The Repsol Honda man went down while trail braking into turn 12 and threw away the 3.5s lead he had built over old enemy Valentino Rossi.

“I don’t know. Of course it was a mistake because you cannot crash when you are leading by 3.5 seconds, this is a mistake,” said Marquez, speaking at the track.

“But it’s true we compared the data, was very similar to the previous lap. But when you are riding a very constant pace, when you feel strong, it can happen.”

On data already we compare and it was very similar to my fastest lap and to other laps. But of course it’s a very long braking point and it’s difficult to understand sometimes.

It was thought that Marquez had overheated the front tyre in his attempt to get awaty from the pack, but he refuted that, saying he was in tyre management mode.

“The mistake is I crash, but I didn’t make anything stupid. Sometimes I say, ‘ok, I was over the limit’, but I was inside my limit. I was riding smooth, trying to save the front tyre.

“I didn’t have any warning, I was riding in a very good way, like more or less in Argentina.”