Hero-to-zero as Pol causes lap one chaos

After making history for KTM by being fastest in warm-up, Pol Espargaro ruined his German MotoGP chances - and those of three other riders - with a wild move in the opening corners of Sunday's Sachsenring race.

Espargaro clipped the back of Suzuki's Andrea Iannone on entry to Turn 3 - sending the Italian wide - while Pol fell and brought down the other GSX-RR of Alex Rins.

Jack Miller was also caught up in the mayhem and forced to ride through a gravel trap before re-joining the circuit.

Espargaro held his hands up and accepted full responsibility for the incident.

“I don't want to say I was unlucky because I generated everything," commented Pol, whose team-mate Bradley Smith matched KTM's best result of the season with tenth place.

"I was on the outside of the second corner and I was pushed a little wide, which is normal, but I could not avoid Iannone who was on the inside of the third corner and locking the bike a lot.

"I crashed and I was so, so sorry for Alex. 

"It was really unfortunate that it happened there on the first lap and we didn't get to show what we had in the pocket today. It was the worst moment of the season because I think we could have shown something very interesting here at Sachsenring."

Rins accepted Espargaro's apology but also felt his fellow Spaniard should have been penalised to avoid 'chaos' in the future.

"I was on the inside of the second corner and I saw Pol on the outside a little bit on the limit, and when we changed direction he was on the kerb at maximum angle and he touched with Andrea," Rins said.

"Then he crashed and I could not avoid him… Race Direction said no penalty."

Do you agree?

"Sincerely, no. But anyway this is racing."

Rins added: "Pol and I talked. He said sorry and I said, 'okay, no worries. Sometimes it happens'.

"But anyway, if the big boys from Race Direction don’t stop this, finally it will be chaos."

Suzuki team manager Davide Brivio said: "This incident [was] sad and shouldn’t really happen at a track like Sachsenring where everybody knows it’s very tight.” 

Miller, who estimates he lost 15-seconds in the Espargaro incident, rode from 21st and last to 14th place at the chequered flag.

"I went through turn two then got bitch-slapped into the gravel at turn three. But it was coming from a long way," said the Australian.

"I went deep on the brakes into turn one and he [Espargaro] still put his nose there and touched the back of me. Then he tried to go around the outside of me and about three others in turn two.

"There was nowhere to go and he tried to force his way in at turn three with Rins.

"It was just somebody who was a bit over-excited, I guess, on the first lap. We've all done it."

Iannone finished the first lap in 18th place after the contact from Espargaro and went on to claim twelfth.

“The race was over for me at Turn 3," Iannone said. "I think Pol Espargarò should have thought a bit more about what he was doing, because there isn’t space at that corner and he was completely on the kerb - there wasn’t a line there.

"I heard the bike behind me and I started to pick my bike up a bit because I expected there could be contact, that manoeuvre prevented me from crashing but my bike was damaged and I lost more than 10 places. 

"I understand that everyone wants to push hard in the early laps, but it’s more dangerous than ever in MotoGP now and people must be careful."

Pol's older brother Aleix was forced to miss the race after being injured in warm-up .