Ducati’s Marc Marquez has taken the blame for his crash out of second early on in Sunday’s MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

The reigning world champion qualified on pole at Jerez and came into Sunday chasing a double on home soil, following an unlikely victory in the sprint in flag-to-flag conditions.

Leading the opening lap, Marc Marquez was overhauled by eventual winner Alex Marquez on lap two of 25 at Turn 6, before crashing out going through Turn 11 moments later.

The factory Ducati rider walked away unscathed from the incident, though is now 44 points down in the championship after registering his second Sunday DNF of the campaign.

Speaking to the media on Sunday afternoon, Marquez says the fall was his mistake while noting that he was aiming for “third, fourth” rather than victory.

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“Yeah, I’m ok,” he said.

“Our race finished earlier, but we enjoyed the Spanish GP from Thursday to today.

“Unluckily, our race finished early, but nothing to say – just a mistake.

“I mean, of course I did something different because I crashed.

“It was just a mistake. Sometimes it happens, and in those first laps of the race, I was trying to control everything, because I knew that Alex was faster than everybody in dry conditions this weekend.

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“And my target was to try to work to finish in that third, fourth place.”

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Ducait looked decidedly better than Aprilia at Jerez on Sunday for the first time this season, with Alex Marquez beating Marco Bezzecchi by almost two seconds.

However, Marc Marquez didn’t suggest he happy yet with where his GP26 is at currently, and is hoping to make a step forward in the post-race test on Monday.

“I mean, I was stronger on Saturday in rain conditions, but on Friday in dry conditions we were far from the fastest riders,” he said.

“So, we need to keep working to understand where we can improve.

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“Tomorrow we have a test, where we will try to work a bit more and try to understand if we can improve in some areas, especially to be more consistent on Sundays.”

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