Marquez: Racing incident, but if someone at fault it's me

After crashing out of the Le Mans, Marc Marquez's Italian MotoGP lasted just over a lap before a clash with Brad Binder sent the Repsol Honda rider down and out.

Qualifying eleventh after some towing controversy, Marquez gained one place on the opening lap, then tried to pass Binder for ninth on entry to the Turn 2 chicane.

But Marquez never got ahead of the KTM rider and the pair tangled at the apex, sending Marquez sliding off and forcing the following Franco Morbidelli through the gravel in avoiding action.

"Unfortunately we finished the race earlier than we expected and it was the worst thing for me because of course I need laps and kilometres on the bike," Marquez said.

"It's true that I had contact with Brad Binder, we can say it's a racing incident because specifically at that point on the track similar crashes have happened many times before.

"But okay, it can be a racing incident, but if someone was at fault it's me. Because I came into Turn 2, just I didn’t see him, I thought he was further back and when we did the change of direction we made contact and I crashed.

"Lucky, I crashed alone, because like I say it was a race incident but my fault, so this was okay for me."

But while Marquez may have crashed alone, the impact was hard enough to trigger Binder's airbag and he now had to ride the remainder of the lap blown up like the Michelin man.

"When Marc rode into the side of me my airbag went off and I rode with it on for a whole lap. As everyone knows with the airbag on you can barely breathe!" smiled Binder, who revealed he also nearly fell on the out-up lap to the grid.

"You cannot move so much on the bike. It was really difficult to hang off and to move my arms and get into the corners.

"The most difficult was to tuck-in. When you cannot hide from the wind at 350ks power then your helmet comes a couple of centimetres closer to your face!"

Once it had deflated, Binder worked his way steadily forwards for fifth place, matching his best result of the season.

"I got back into my own rhythm and pushed as hard as I could until the end and I was happy to bring it home in 5th," he said.

Morbidelli rejoined in last place and went on to finish 16th.

"I had an unfortunate incident behind Marc, to avoid him and his bike I needed to go straight outside at Turn 3 and I lost the chance to stay with the pack for some more laps" said the Petronas Yamaha rider, who was battling a big top-speed deficit all weekend. "But anyway, today I didn't have the speed that is required to fight with the MotoGP guys. It's a pity but it's not the thing that burns the most today."

Meanwhile, if there was a silver lining for Marquez, it's that he now heads straight for his home Catalan Grand Prix without the physical exertion of a putting a full race distance on his struggling right arm and shoulder.

"Of course, I didn't finish the race, just over one lap, so this will mean more chance to enjoy the Catalan GP, because normally in the race with many laps in a row is when I suffer more with the right arm," said the eight time world champion.

"So we took a rest there. This will be positive for Montmelo but anyway we will see there. It's another kind of circuit. Normally we struggle a lot, it's not one of the best for us in the past, but we are working in our way.

"This weekend we learned a lot, I felt inside me that I did a step and this is important. Coming from a very hard moment, only I and my team knows my physical conditions... We know where we are, we know where we want to arrive and we will try to do the correct steps."