Alex Marquez’s knee ‘trapped between the bikes’, Martin ‘sorry’

The Gresini Ducati rider, sick in his helmet before crashing from fifth in the Saturday Sprint, left Austin empty-handed after being caught up in Jorge Martin’s Turn 3 accident in the main race.

Marquez’s leg then became trapped between the sliding machines and he also made contact with the trackside wall. But he escaped any serious injuries and was angrier at the points lost.

“My leg was trapped between both bikes and I also touched the wall. So it was not an easy crash,” said Marquez. “But I’m angry because we lost many points today. It was a good opportunity.

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“It's a little bit strange to have the best performance of the season here and get 0 points! And in Portimao and Argentina, where we were not really good, we were able to catch many points. But that’s racing.”

Marquez, whose suspected food poisoning had improved on Sunday, felt Martin made “a clear mistake” but accepted the Pramac Ducati rider’s apology.

“He was already on the outside [at turn 2] and he tried to recover what he lost on turn 3 that, all the riders know, is so tricky,” Marquez explained. “He was coming from the dirty side, putting a lot of lean angle. And touched the brake.

“If you touch the brake in that angle, you will crash. More so in the first lap when the front tyre is not in the right moment.

“But it’s something that can happen to me tomorrow. It has happened in the past, will happen in the present and will happen again in the future. So I accept he's sorry and that's it. For me, it's closed. It’s racing.”

Martin, who was also sick during the Austin weekend but had finished third in the Sprint race, confirmed he had been off-line going into the turn.

“Aleix [Espargaro] was wide into corner two and I was on the outside [of him], so I went really on the outside. And then as soon as I closed on turn 3, I lost the front. Maybe [because of] being out of the line, but I had nowhere to go,” Martin said.

“First lap, maybe the tyre wasn't ready, but I had this strange crash and sorry for Alex for sure… It's a pity because I [also] felt super strong. But shit happens.”

The Martin-Marquez accident was the first of nine falls in the race, the others being single-rider incidents for which Marquez felt there was a clear explanation.

“Wind,” he said. “Compared to Friday and Saturday, [the direction was] completely opposite. So all the feelings that you have are completely opposite. For example, turn 2 I crashed this morning, yesterday [the wind direction] was helping us, today was in the opposite way so it was so easy to make a mistake.”

Marquez and Martin return to Europe eighth and eleventh in the early world championship standings.