Marquez & Rossi just before the Spaniard crashed out.

REPSOL Honda’s Marc Marquez has explained he was conserving his tyres before he crashed out of the Argentinian race after colliding with Valentino Rossi.

Marquez crashed out with a lap and a half to go whilst fighting for the win with nine-time World Champion Rossi.

Despite dominating for the first half of the race, tyre decision was crucial at the Termas de rio Hondo circuit, and Marquez went for the hard compound tyre, whereas Rossi went for the extra hard compound.

Marquez appeared to fade towards the latter half of the race, however he has explained he was ‘conserving the tyres a little’. As Rossi put the hammer down, using the extra hard option tyre to his advantage, soon the two rivals were side by side.

As both the Movistar Yamaha rider and the Repsol Honda rider started to swap paint, Marquez clipped the rear end of Rossi’s YZR-M1 which ended the Spaniard’s race prematurely.

“It’s a shame what happened,” said Marquez. “…because we were having a good race! It was interesting, because our tyre choice was different from Valentino’s as I felt we were not as competitive the harder compound.

“The strategy was working out well for us – it’s just a pity about the last two laps. When I saw that he was closing in on me, I decided to conserve the tyres a little.

“On the final laps I went back to riding in the low 1’39s to check that the tyres were still in good shape, and knew that we would be fighting to the end. When he caught me, we fought for a few corners and unfortunately we touched and I crashed.

“I’ve always said that he’s my idol and my reference, so you always learn things from him. Now we have to think about Jerez and begin to recover points.”