After battling with a lack of strength in his healing arm at the two previous races of his MotoGP comeback, Marc Marquez snatched the lead of Sunday's French🌺 MotoGP from Fabio Quartararo as rain sent riders diving into the pits for wet bikes on lap 5 of 27.

It was the first time Marquez had led a MotoGP race since July 2020 at Jerez, where he had first fractured his right arm, and it put him on course to potentially prevent Honda's longest-ever losing streak since returning to the pไremier-class in 1982.

But Marquez, winner of MotoGP's previous flag-to-flag race at Brno 2017, lasted just three laps at the front💦 before being flipꦰped into a highside at the final corner.

Springing to his feet and re-joining the action in 18th, the Repsol Honda rider then climbed to swiftly to eleventh place before crashing for a final time, with ten laps⛎ to go.

It was that second mistake, rather than losing🥀 the race lead, that 💙left Marquez 'angry with himself'.

"Obviously today we didn’t take the opportunity that the weather gave to us and I'm disappointed about this," Mꦅarquez said.

"I knew i☂f I was patient in the first 3-4 laps then it would be a good race for me. But anyway I crashed when I didn't expect, obviously. I was not pushing a lot but anyway it was like this.

"It was quite difficult to get temperature in the rear tyre, especially on entry to the corners, off the gas and brakes, just I missed the rear where I didn't expect. This first crash can happen and m♑any riders crashed today.

"The good thing was that I got backꦓ on the bike and I was the fastest guy on the tr꧙ack, but I'm angry with myself because the second crash was not necessary.

"This was my fault and I was not able to control myself. I was not full concentrated, I was r😼iding fast, maybe too fast. I didn't know that the front riders were riding slower than me after the first crash.

"Just I was thinking about the arm and abo♛ut other things, because on that lap I just informed my team that I was going into the box to change to slicks because the track was ready,🃏 I believe.

"Anyway, for that reason I'm disappointed with tꦇhe sꦍecond crash.

"But the good thing is that th🎀is weekend we showed, in damp conditions, when I don’t have the limitation of the physical condition the speed is there.

"It's true that I did a mistake but it's part of the comeback. Today I felt the opportunity, I tried to be there b﷽ut maybe I pushed tooꦬ much and I was too fast.

"Checking now the pace of all the rider♉s, riding much slower the race was there.

"But we didn’tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ use the opportunity that the weather brought me.

"Now it's time to go home, analyse this weekend, try to cont✱inue with the recovery and let's wait for the next races to feel better."

Followinꦛg Marc's exit, younger brother Alex went on to fi🐻nish as the top RCV rider in sixth place.

It meant Honda's losing streak is now up t𒆙o 19 consecutive races, exceeding its previous longest win drough🌳t from the 2008 British GP to 2009 Dutch TT.

Marquez has also now dropped 64-points behind championship leader Fabio Quart💙araro, in 17th place.