Marquez: “These things happen when you’re on the limit”

Starting down in 13th place after a miserable qualifying session, Marquez wasted no time in making amends in the race, jumping to sixth after the first corner and soon fighting his way up to second.

But the reigning champion ended up in the gravel battling Andrea Iannone’s Ducati for second in the latter stages, the front end of his factory Honda folding as he tried to repass the Italian with seven laps to go.

Marquez’s reaction to his retirement was a philosophical one, saying: “I'm happy because I was able to carry out our plan, which was to try to recover positions on the first five laps.

“We were up into second place after four laps, but when the tyre grip went down we had a similar problem to before, with the tyre sliding on corner entry.

“I was on the limit and when you are pushing at the maximum sometimes things happen like they did today.

“We have dropped quite far behind in the standings, but Honda are working hard and together we will keep pushing to improve the feeling with the bike for the second half of the season."

Marquez now lies fifth in the riders’ standings after dropping behind Iannone, and is 49 points adrift of Valentino Rossi at the top of the table.