PICTURES: 250cc turn one chaos.

Jorge Lorenzo began Sunday's 250cc Turkish Grand Prix chasing his third victory from three 2006 starts, but his hopes of maintaining a perfect record ended with a bizarre accident at turn one.

Repsol Honda's Shuhei Aoyama - whose brother went on to win the race for KTM -missed his braking point and went straight on at the corner, causing him to clash with Lorenzo as the Fortuna Aprilia rider turned in - sending them both tumbling out.

"I'm really sorry for what happened and I want to apologise to Jorge Lorenzo for that," said the Japanese afterwards. "I knew that in order to get a good result I needed a good start, so I focussed on it. I actually made a good start but when I arrived at the first left-hand corner, I braked too late and I couldn't avoid crashing with Lorenzo. It's been my fault; I'm very sorry for Lorenzo and for my team, who have been working really hard this weekend to provide me with a competitive bike."

A furious Lorenzo, who tried to remount his machine only to be prevented from continuing by a derailed chain, 'agreed' with Aoyama as far as blame was concerned.

"I did not get away very well and tried to make up some ground at the first corner, but I felt a huge hit from behind and just saw myself hit the floor," said the Spaniard. "I am very annoyed because I wanted to win the race and extend my lead in the championship. As it was I didn't score any points and lost all the advantage I had earned myself from Jerez and Qatar. I have seen the crash on television and think Aoyama was to blame. I am angry and physically hurt, but I will be ready for the next race in China when I will demonstrate my potential again."

Meanwhile, several riders further down the field also fell in a separate incident at the same corner.