Having both started in the top 10, Petrucci and Redding came together on the opening lap, which resulted in the latter falling off and the former subsequently picking up a ride-through penalty.

Both of them wound up finishing outside the points, on a day where no Ducati bike made the top 10.

"When I try to pass Scott, I go side by side with him and I don't think we touched very hard but he goes wide and then he goes after the kerb and loses the steering," explained Petrucci.

"It was not a crash off my foot, but it's my foot that he went wide [off of].

"For sure, if I didn't go inside, he doesn't crash. I'm very sorry for him. It's my fault, sincerely."

Petrucci did suggest, however, that an issue with his bike might have played a part in the collision.

"I tried to brake hard, but my bike doesn't stop.

"After a few laps, I go always wide and wide and wide and then they gave me a ride-through penalty. At the same moment, my software asked me to reduce the power, go low every lap, less power, less power. I think we got something strange on the ECU.

"For sure, I am very sorry to let Scott crash and it's the second time this year, it's never happened in the previous years. After Austria with Eugene [Laverty], this time at the first lap, I'm very, very sorry. He's very angry and he's right because I ruined also his race."

Petrucci and Redding are currently in a straight shoot-out for a Ducati Desmosedici GP17 bike in 2016, as only one of them is to be made available to Pramac.

Asked whether he had already talked to Redding, Petrucci said: "He's very angry, he said only to me 'thank you', I think it was ironic.

"I tried to say sorry, tried to explain it wasn't completely my fault, but for sure the result is that I ruined his race and my race. I'm very worried about this."

Additional reporting by Lena Buffa