Cal Crutchlow was quick to hold his hands up and apologise to Dani Pedrosa after qualifying at the Sachsenring on Saturday.

The Englishman accidentally held up the Repsol Honda rider early in Qualifying 2, with Pedrosa making his anger clear. Crutchlow apologised to Pedrosa as soon as the session ended, by which time the Spaniard had claimed a front row start.

"Honestly I was looking behind me twice on that lap because I was coming in and I didn't see anybody and then I held him up. Completely my fault," Crutchlow said. "He was revving... I went and saw him to say sorry but he was f**king angry. I said, 'listen, I didn't see you'. He said, 'you did.' I said, 'I didn't.' I hate when people hold you up and when they follow each other.

"I said, 'listen, I'm sorry' and he's fine. But Honda came to me and said, 'Cal we have a bill. Dani's punched his tank because of you.' They need a new tank now because he's punched it through but he's ok. When I went to see him he said, 'you need to pay for the tank.' I said, 'F**k you!' But no, he's ok!"

While Pedrosa had gone on to take second on the grid, Crutchlow was left down in tenth, 1.073s from Marc Marquez.

"I qualified tenth. I wasn't very happy. I should have been in the top six. Simple as that. I don't really know [what happened]. I felt like I was pushing to the limit of our package at that time and that's as fast as I could go. I made two or three mistakes for sure but because I was pushing in other areas.

"Marc has [the race] sewn up if he rides around. He did a '21.6 with 30 laps, he's doing them for fun. Dani's strong as well. I think you always have to be careful with Jorge, he'll be there. Honestly Valentino doesn't have a bad pace and I think we have the next best pace after that. It'll be hard from tenth on the grid because it's so difficult to pass."

Crutchlow had already suffered a setback prior to qualifying in the form of a highside in morning practice (pictured).

"I had a big crash in FP3, I went into the corner a bit too fast and didn't want to risk losing the front so I used the rear brake a little too much and it threw me over the handlebars. So I have a small crack in my elbow and my fibula, but honestly I'm ok and not in too much pain," he revealed.

The #35 added that fifth place qualifier Yonny Hernandez was his hero of the day, with Bradley Smith pulling off the best save by hanging on to a near highside.

"The hero of the day has to be Hernandez - that lap time he did there is good enough for pole in 2013 and second last year. He's f**king riding well. I don't think he'll be there in the race and again he's on a super soft.

"Save of the day has to be Brad. I want to go and see his nut sack later. They must be black, they're not going to be ginger any more!"