Source: Ajo Motorsport.

Australia’s Jack Miller lost the lead in the 2014 Moto3 World Championship at Aragon after crashing out in an incident involving title rival Alex Marquez.

Miller entered Aragon with a nine-point advantage in the standings, but exits 11 in arrears of Marquez with four races remaining including his home grand prix at Phillip Island next month.

In half wet, half dry conditions, 19-year-old Aussie Miller gained three places to lead after the opening lap, but contact with Marquez at the close of lap four – later examined by Race Direction – saw him cartwheel out of contention.

“In the crash, Marquez had tried to overtake me on the straight but did not have the pace to do so,” Miller explained. “On the entry to the corner I was on the dry line and went in normally. I knew Marquez would try to block off inside corner, but he did not cut the gas and made me fall off the bike.

“Sometimes these things happen – it’s racing. I’m happy and I want to thank the whole team, because they were able to repair the bike after it was pretty damaged and I was able to get back on track for a few laps. Now we head to a circuit that I like and we’ll see what happens.”

Marquez said it was a racing incident by his account, but wasn’t 100 percent certain on what caused the eventual crash of Miller and stopped short of taking the blame.

“Regarding what happened with Miller: I passed him on the inside, rode my line on the dry bit of track and felt contact halfway into the corner,” Marquez said. “I didn’t know what had happened because I was focused on keeping to my line. I think that what happened was a racing incident.”

Following a pit stop where the Red Bull KTM Ajo mechanics got Miller’s bike back in condition to rejoin the race, he finished outside the points in 27th, while Marquez marginally missed the win in second.