Maverick Vinales lost the MotoGP title lead he has held since the opening round in Qatar, after falling during Sunday's Dutch TT at Assen.

The Movistar Yamaha rider was mystified by the incident, which occurred when he lost the rear of his M1 through the final chicane on lap 12 of 26.

The young Spaniard had made a swift rise up the order from eleventh on the grid to fifth and believes he had the pace to win. But instead, he was left to ponder a second DNF of the season, having previously fallen in Austin.

"I can't explain what happened because I don't even know how I crashed!" Vinales said. "I've passed through there 2,000 times and didn't crash."

The only cause Vinales could offer was that he must have been pushing too hard as a consequence of his poor position in the wet qualifying session.

"This crash is something you cannot explain, you can just learn, especially about the qualifying. I knew this morning it would be tricky. I did my best; it was everything or nothing and finally I got nothing.

"I was feeling great. I was trying to maintain the tyres on a good level. I was preparing an attack for the last ten laps. I was in a good way, I was really smooth on all the track. I felt much more strong than the other riders.

"I was pushing myself over the limit. I was trying to bring the Yamaha to the top. I think if I didn't crash I could make the victory for sure because our pace was much faster than the front guys.

"Anyway, in some races the fastest does not win and finally we have to learn from that.

"Today was a race to learn and learn that in qualifying the minimum you can do is sixth or fifth. The mistake was from yesterday, not from today.

"We have to go for it the next couple of races and we expect something different."

Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso has taken over the world championship by four points from Vinales, whose race-winning team-mate Valentino Rossi is now just three points further back as MotoGP heads for its halfway event in Germany next weekend.