World championship favourite Marc Marquez is unable to explain the crash that handed the points lead back to his brother Alex at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

The factory Ducati rider fell out of third place on lap three of the race. It’s the second time in an otherwise perfect race season that Marquez has fallen and lost the lead of the championship: the other occasion was two weekends ago in the Americas Grand Prix.

“I understand why I crashed in Austin,” said Marquez after the race at Jerez. “Today, I don’t understand.

“I need to analyse that because I was not attacking. I was cruising just like I did in the first races, [staying] behind [the early leaders]. Because I know that the second part of the race is my strong point.”

Pushed for a hypothesis, Marquez ventured that being behind other riders – in this case leader Fabio Quartararo and team-mate Francesco Bagnaia – could have been a factor.

“I didn’t check the data [yet], but maybe it was one degree more [lean] angle. I don’t know… but it’s true that I was behind two riders and maybe it was the first time in the weekend that I was behind riders.

Marc Marquez, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“And then maybe the tyre… [maybe] the bike changed a bit [compared to different rubber compounds earlier in the weekend] and I didn’t think about it and then for that reason I made the mistake.”

Marquez remounted following the accident and was able to lap fast despite a Ducati that looked decidedly worse for wear. He managed to fight his way to 12th place and claim four world championship points for his efforts, during which he set the sixth-fastest lap late in the race.

Sitting just one point behind Alex after five of 22 rounds, the eight-time world champion won’t panic just yet. “The important thing is that the speed is there, but we need to avoid the mistakes.

“I’m happy. If you don’t have the pace and you crash, then you say, ‘OK, now I have two things to fix – the crash plus the pace’. [But] the pace is there. We just need to avoid the mistakes.”

Photos from Spanish GP – Race