Catalan MotoGP race winner Marc Marquez admitted he was very lucky after a second lap crash caused by his Repsol Honda team-mate Jorge Lorenzo which took out race and World Championship rivals Andrea Dovizioso, Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Spaniard had just moved underneath Dovizioso at turn ten when the chaos happened behind him, leaving him with a two second lead and his rivals out of the race. Despite going on to dominate the remainder of the race, the World Champion was perfectly aware how lucky he had been.

“It was not easy, because okay, I was in front but I was pushing. I was pushing because like I say I know the Yamaha riders were very fast at the end with more rubber on the track,” said Marquez who is now 37 points clear in the World Championship.

“So I just was pushing, but now I’ve seen the incident and I was very lucky there.

“For some reason I was behind Dovi and I said I will overtake him in the straight with the slipstream, but I was behind him in the brake point, and I saw he was stopping a lot and I really stop the bike in case, and in case was the moment, but I was very lucky.”

When asked for his opinions on the crash, Marquez said: “If you see the image, people can say what is Lorenzo doing, but for me it’s not like this.

“Lorenzo was on the line, and unlucky for him he lose the front, Dovi and Vinales were out of the line and the bike hit them.

“It’s a corner that in MotoGP is so difficult, like Danilo said when you have two or three MotoGP bikes in front the slipstream is there and can happen. Like Zarco at the end of the straight in Australia, or 4 years ago Jorge here. For example Iannone to Jorge was even worse.

“I mean I check only two times, but for me Lorenzo was not out of control, but unlucky for them he lose the front as it’s easy to lose the front here. Plus the fuel tank all this things and Dovi and Vinales that were out of the line the bike catches then, then Valentino too.”

Marquez didn’t see the crash or know what had happened behind him, but he did say that he felt something strange and was confused after seeing Petrucci behind him on his pit board.

“Honestly speaking I feel something strange, I just know that Dovi was out; I didn’t know that the others were out,” he said.

“Then I saw that Petrucci was second, and then in the papers and practice he was not one of the fastest guys. But I say ‘continue pushing’, even though the gap was already big, but I continue pushing, as I know this guy [Quartararo sat behind him in the press conference] and the Yamaha riders were very fast in the last part of the race.

“I was trying to manage the tyres in the last laps and a good 25 points, good for the championship and a good day for our family.”

Marquez is now 37 points clear in the World Championship, in spite of this, Marquez said he is not resting on his laurels, insisting that nothing is easy with over half the season to go.

“37, you never know. Now looks like everything is easy, but it’s not easy. We're pushing,” Marquez said.

“Today I take a risk and today I nearly lost the front in turn five and I was riding in a good way, but even like this there were some riders pushing me and you never know the championship is very long. We're in the seventh race and we need to keep going.”