Marc Marquez surrendered his lead in the MotoGP World Chanmpionship at Silverstone today when his first-ever engine failure in the premier class saw the Spaniard grind to a halt with seven laps remaining.

Marquez had decided to try and follow eventual winner Andrea Dovizoso away from the Yamahas of Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi but the engine - new in the bike this weekend - decided to stop functioning on the run into Stowe corner at more than 180mph.

“It was some mechanical problem inside the engine – now we need to find what happened for the future because it was a fresh engine. But I believe Honda will understand quick and we will improve for the future,” said Marquez, speaking at the track.

“At that moment, I was not thinking about what happened, I was thinking about the championship. The small advantage we had before the race – you don’t like to lose that advantage in this way. But it’s part of racing, it can happen. The most important thing is we were fighting for the victory.

“The engine was working perfect, but suddenly when I arrive at the end of the straight it just broke. I pulled the clutch immediately because I started to feel the rear wheel was locking, and at 300kph I don’t want a flight.”