Image: Supplied.

Frenchman Marvin Musquin endured a bitter end to his 2019 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship campaign, tweaking his knee in the final moto which ultimately forced him to withdraw from the encounter.

The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing ace claimed a thrilling victory in race one and looked set to keep his hands on runner-up honours in the championship, however he relinquish the spot after crashing and injuring his knee in the opening corners of race two.

“In the first moto, I charged hard to get around [Eli] Tomac and the lap after I passed [Ken] Roczen and it was just awesome,” said Musquin. “To me, it was the best moto of the year. In the second moto, I was maybe charging too hard off the start and I came into that left-hander too hot and couldn’t slow down enough.

“Zach [Osborne] was ahead of me and I couldn’t avoid him and I basically landed on him in that little turn and I couldn’t avoid that. Unfortunately, I crashed and tweaked my knee so I couldn’t keep going.

“It was a bummer, I wanted to finish on a high note and also secure my second place in the championship, but unfortunately, I lost that. Right now, there’s nothing we can do for it but we’ve got some time off.”

Musquin, who now has the off-season to recover, completed the championship third in the final points rankings.