Pictures: Sachsenring turn one chaos.

Turn one of the 2005 German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring saw three riders eliminated on the spot, with Shane Byrne dropping his Proton KR after clipping the back of Carlos Checa while Kawasaki team-mates Alex Hofmann and Olivier Jacque tangled seconds later.

Byrne, who had lined up just 21st on the grid, got by far his best start of the season so far - but arrived a little too hot into turn one, forcing him to weave his way through the bunched up traffic ahead, before making contact with Checa.

It appeared as if Byrne had speared the unfortunate Spaniard, but the Brit felt the Ducati rider had cut across in front of him - and that he himself had been clipped from behind.

"It was a bit of a short-lived event," admitted Byrne. "I think it was one of the best starts that I had, so that's a good thing. I got up the inside of quite a few people, then around the outside of Xaus and got to the braking area past Tamada and everybody, and I was thinking, 'This is mega, we're on it.'

"Getting stopped, getting stopped, getting stopped - admittedly I was going to run into the first corner a little bit hot, not like tragically - but Carlos came across and I clipped the back of him and that kind of stood me up a little bit and I nearly fell off, but someone must have hit the back of my bike and that just spun me around and I fell off," he added.

While Byrne avoided contact with the Kawasaki riders in the incident, he did influence their exit - home hero Hofmann having made room for the fast travelling Brit, then colliding with wild-card Jacque as they both went for the same piece of tarmac.

"It's very frustrating to be out of a 30-lap race after just 250 metres, especially my home grand prix, and it is not a good situation for the Kawasaki team," fumed Alex. "I made a good start and going into turn one Shakey Byrne was way too late on the brakes and I knew he would crash, so I opened some room for him.

"Then I flicked into the corner, it was open and clear, and then my rear end was gone when OJ hit me. I haven't got eyes in the back of my head," added the German, before making clear who he felt was to blame: "Shakey being late on the brakes is not the reason we crashed. I had a chance today to show what I could do, it's very disappointing."

Meanwhile, Jacque felt that Byrne had forced Hofmann to delay his corner turn-in, and that when he did finally lean his ZX-RR the Frenchman was already there.

"I'm sorry for Alex, I know how bad he must feel about this incident at his home race," offered OJ. "In turn one Shakey Byrne came from behind, very hard on the brakes and crashed in front of Alex who just had to wait a moment to flick into the corner.

"I was behind and on the inside a little and able to turn into the corner, and then Alex had some room and turned in and we just touched, it was an unfortunate incident. It's very disappointing for me, I need to race and do laps and get more experience on the Kawasaki," he added.

As a result of the accident, all three were unable to take part in the race restart needed after an accident by Suzuki's John Hopkins on lap 6.

Meanwhile, the third Kawasaki of Shinya Nakano escaped the first turn mayhem and went on to finish an excellent sixth.