Petronas Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo says his early German Grand Prix crash was down to “hesitation” over whether to try to overtake Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci.
Quartararo had a strong launch off the line from second on the grid at the Sachsenring led into Turn 1, but he was out-braked by Marc Marquez and then ran wide when Jack Miller made contact with him on the inside.
The Yamaha rider dropped to sixth as a result and then tried to pass Petrucci at the Castol Omega turn on the second lap, but crashed after running on the kerbs.
Quartararo said he was indecisive in the move and that he had carried too much speed, with his Turn 1 error that preceded the crash down to an error in shifting gear.
“I made a mistake in my start, first and second gear was OK. I tried to put [it in] the third gear and I didn’t shift,” explained Quartararo.
“Unfortunately I braked a little bit too early, had a touch with Jack. “The second lap I tried to overtake Petrucci but I was hesitating a lot, [over] if I need to do it or not, and unfortunately it was the wrong choice. Too much lean angle, too fast and I lost the front.
“So, yes, our first mistake in the race, our first crash, we will learn from this one and come back stronger.
“We had a really good pace to fight with top guys, it cannot only be positive for us and never negative.
“So today we crashed, we saw that Alex [Rins] crashed also, at the end some riders were happy today and in the past I was happy.”
Quartararo concluded the first part of his rookie season eighth in the standings with two podiums at Barcelona and Assen, three pole positions and a sole crash at the Sachsenring.
“If we make the balance of this year, we make only one crash in a race, was here, but three pole position, five front rows in total and two podiums,” Quartararo said.
“I didn’t expect that from my first half of the season.
“I will have some rest, some holiday, and of course I will be working hard in the last two weeks to prepare the second half of the season.”