Dani Pedrosa lost the front as he braked to enter turn 1 on lap seven, taking down innocent Andrea Dovizioso in the process. Yes, a mistake, but further complicated by Andrea Dovizioso who, as bad luck would have it, was right in line of the sliding Spaniard.
A very different accident from that involving Dani in 2006 however, when he was team-mate of Nicky Hayden, fighting for the title.
"Unfortunately, I made a small mistake, losing the front as I braked, while I was still leaning to enter the turn - explained the Honda rider - I lost control and tried to avoid the crash but I ended up on ground, taking Dovisiozo down with me. It's a pity to finish a race like that, and I feel really bad for Andrea and want to apologise again to him".
This was in fact Dani's first action, immediately going to check on Andrea and his condition, as his RC213-V had just missed hitting the Italian fully in the leg. An impact that could have had serious consequences.
"I'm pleased he's OK - continued Dani, who on returning to the pits went straight to Dovizioso's garage to apologise properly without the helmet on - The good news it that we took a big step forward from the practices to the race. Now we have to carefully analyse the data that we've collected here and try to build on this for the Jerez GP in two weeks' time. It's been a bit of a difficult weekend overall. The practices didn't all go well, but I was hopeful ahead of the race and think we started out quite well. I made up some places and was in a good group, I think we could have battled with Lorenzo for second; the pace was a lot better than it had been during practice".
Watch the entire crash sequence by CLICKING HERE