Source: Supplied.

Repsol Honda’s defending world champion Marc Marquez made a costly error during Sunday’s MotoGP in Argentina, crashing out of the lead and enabling title-rival Maverick Viñales to sprint ahead to victory.

After setting pole on Saturday, Marquez stretched an advantage of around two seconds by lap four, but crashed soon afterwards in turn two. He was unhurt in the incident, but disappointed post-race.

“I was feeling really good on the bike,” Marquez said. “I was able to ride strong, as we made a great improvement to the setup in the warm-up, which made me feel pretty comfortable on my bike. The crash was unexpected, I must have made a small mistake and it cost me a lot. Luckily I’m okay, but these kinds of mistakes disappoint me, as everything was going well. Anyway, we must put this behind us and think of the next race in Austin.”

Teammate Dani Pedrosa also exited the race with a turn two incident at Termas de Rio Hondo. He was running fourth at the time when he went down on lap 14 – making for a double non-finish of the factory Hondas.