Assen MotoGP: Valentino Rossi laments 'stupid' crash while leading

Rossi took the lead just after the restart following the mid-race red flag for worsening conditions, but lasted less than three laps before falling.

Though he lost little ground to struggling Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who came home only 10th, Rossi's deficit to championship-leading Dutch TT runner-up Marc Marquez now stands at 42 points.

"In the first part of the race I felt good, I had good pace, so for the second part we put the soft tyre on the rear and I felt even better," Rossi said.

"I did a mistake, I was too fast, I pushed too hard, it was too much.

"Because I could open the throttle earlier [than in the first part of the race], I arrived to Turn 10 and braked in the same point but I arrived 4-5km/h faster and I lost the front.

"It was a stupid mistake unfortunately and I'm very sorry for all the team, for me and for all the guys because today we could win because we had an advantage compared to the others.

"It was very easy to make a mistake, in fact a lot of riders that pushed 100% made mistakes, but I'm very sorry especially about the championship.

"We could've gained some important points, especially on Lorenzo but also against Marquez.

"Now it's more difficult because the advantage of Marquez is quite big."

Rossi was deeply upset with himself after the crash, and said his frustration had been greater because he had stayed out of trouble through the rest of the weather-blighted weekend.

"During the weekend, during all the practices, I was always very precise in riding style and I never made a mistake," he said.

"All the other guys made a mistake, crashed and everything.

"Unfortunately I made the mistake in the important moment.

"I already didn't feel the noise of the others so I already had a good advantage.

"When it passed to the second lap, I saw 1m49.3s [lap time], so I said 'I want to push another lap to take advantage and afterwards try to control the situation' but unfortunately the mistake was that I pushed too hard."