Marquez crashed out of COTA MotoGP sprint race after vomiting in his helmet

Marquez was tipped by eventual sprint race winner Francesco Bagnaia to be “a great rival” in the Saturday contest, but was left to battle back from a bad start from fourth on the grid.

The Gresini rider quickly worked his way into fifth and was running in this position until lap seven of 10 when he crashed out at the Turn 12 hairpin.

Marquez walked away unscathed from the incident, but his media debrief was subsequently cancelled, with Gresini simply stating that he was not feeling 100% after the crash.

The Spaniard later revealed that he had in fact vomited in his helmet as he was braking for Turn 12, which caused his crash.

“I was feeling good performance-wise in the race, as despite a crash in qualifying we still had the confidence and a good pace,” Marquez said.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling good physically and I even threw up under braking at Turn 12 and crashed.

“I ‘freed myself’ after the race and now I feel quite well, and ready to make amends tomorrow [in the grand prix].”

Marquez wasn’t the only unwell rider on the grid battling unpleasant issues, as Pramac’s Ducati’s Jorge Martin admitted after just a few laps in the sprint he was struggling to breathe as “my mouth was full of mucus”.

Martin rose from 12th on the grid after a brace of crashes in qualifying to fend of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in the latter stages of the sprint to complete the podium.

Battling illness all weekend in Texas, Martin said: “After three laps overtaking riders, my mouth was full of mucus and I couldn’t breathe.

“My pulse went up and it was getting harder every time.

“I gave my 100%. I couldn’t breathe after three, four laps. I had no lungs anymore, so it was really difficult to keep the pace.

“In the end I knew Aleix was faster, so I just tried to close a bit the places.

“I knew he was trying there [at the penultimate corner], I braked a little bit more and it was a good manoeuvre.”