Hayden admits to pushing too hard

The former world champion had just moved up to fourth place when Andrea Dovizioso went off, only to make a race-ending error of his own just one lap later.

Hayden said he had lost touch with the leaders initially as his harder Michelins struggled during the early shower.

"The first few laps were certainly not easy, some parts of the track were a little wetter than others and I had on a pretty hard tyre," he said.

"I had been choosing between that tyre and another a little bit softer, but with the way the weather's been this weekend we really hadn't got to do a lot of endurance on the harder one. I got settled in, and the warmer I was getting the tyres the better they were working and I was able to start moving up, so things were feeling pretty good."

He admitted that he could have settled for a safe fourth place, but preferred to push to catch Valentino Rossi for third.

"I made a few passes, I'd just got into fourth, and felt like I wanted to close the gap on the guys in front of me," Hayden said.

"I got fourth place at Jerez and I certainly didn't want to settle in there and ride around, so I had to push hard and you know when you push hard you make mistakes.

"It's not a parade you can't just cruise around. The bike was working good, the tyres were working good, I felt pretty comfortable, so I was pushing.

"Turn 7's downhill, certainly a trick corner, the front let go pretty early and down I went. It's unfortunate because the bike was working good and we were hungry for a good result, so my own mistake. We just have to step it up a bit."