Marquez baffled by Valencia practice crash

The Honda rider fell at Turn 2 at the very end of the afternoon session – marking his 26th crash of the season – and ended up fifth fastest, two places behind title rival Andrea Dovizioso.

Marquez said the incident came as a surprise, as he braked earlier than on the previous lap, adding that his tendency to crash so much this season is "related a lot about the bike".

He added: "For some reason this year we are fast, but it's so difficult to understand where the limit is. Sometimes you have some crashes you didn't expect.

"For example, today's crash, I braked earlier than the previous lap. I don't understand, I had a chatter on the rear that on the other lap I didn't have.

"It's something we need to improve for the future. I don't like to crash, I don't like to be like this. The most important is to not crash in the race."

Despite the crash, Marquez was buoyed by his strong race pace, and singled out works Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa and Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco as his main rivals in this department.

"Of course this gives me good confidence," he said. "But what makes me feel better is we start the weekend in a good way. From FP1 in the first run I feel good with the bike.

"It gives me different feelings when you see your teammate [Pedrosa] is fast, Zarco is fast. They look like the two strongest ones at the moment. And we are fast.

"We need to keep working, keep the same mentality, same concentration. Then after warm-up we check where Dovi is, where I am and where are the other riders."

Additional reporting by German Garcia Casanova