Dani Pedrosa’s hopes of securing second place and a one-two for Repsol Honda in the MotoGP champion stakes came to an end at Sepang when he crashed twice and failed to score for the second race in succession.

The tiny Spaniard lost the front on the brakes into the bumpy last corner on the second lap. He re-mounted and got back into a points-scoring position before going down again with eight laps left. He now trails Valentino Rossi by 55 points with only 25 up for grabs at Valencia.

"For some reason on lap two I lost the front end and went down. I don't know what could have happened, because I wasn't riding on the limit. Luckily I was able to pick the bike back up, continue the race and regain positions. I rode very well afterwards, with a good feeling, and then the same thing happened again. I wasn't riding on the limit and I crashed a second time, in the same way as before," said Pedrosa.

"We are going to look at what might have happened, because it occurred twice in a row and on the same side of the tyre. I would have liked for the race to have finished in a different manner, because we had been doing a very good job all weekend, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Thanks to another win for Marc Marquez, Honda have won the constructors’ title but Movistar Yamaha could still nick the team championship at the last race.