Source: Mahindra Racing.

South Australian Arthur Sissis suffered his second DNF in as many races with Mahindra Racing to commence the 2014 Moto3 World Championship, taken out of the Circuit of the Americas race in Texas on Sunday.

It was a cruel blow to Sissis after tonsillitis forced him out of Qatar’s opening round. He qualified the MGP3O in 26th and made progress during the warm-up, but wasn’t able to display his progress over the course of race distance.

“I felt good before the race,” Sissis said. “I had a bad qualifying, but improved a bit this morning and I was expecting a better race. I don’t really know what happened – a rider behind me ran onto the inside kerb and crashed; his bike hit mine. The handlebar was damaged, and though I tried to restart it wasn’t possible.”

Sissis’ teammate Miguel Oliveira was also involved in the first turn melee, rebounding to 15th for a single championship point.