{"id":25222,"date":"2026-05-17T20:38:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/25222\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T20:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:38:43","slug":"three-restarts-is-quite-dangerous-motogp-riders-react-after-terrible-day-in-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/25222\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThree restarts is quite dangerous\u201d: MotoGP riders react after \u201cterrible day\u201d in Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

MotoGP riders have expressed their initial views on a chaotic Catalan Grand Prix, which was interrupted by red flags and marred by heavy crashes involving Alex Marquez<\/a> and Johann Zarco<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first major incident took place on lap 12 of 24 when Marquez could not avoid race leader Pedro Acosta<\/a>, who suddenly slowed down with a suspected electrical issue on the run down to Turn 10. Marquez crashed heavily after running off the track, and had to be transported to hospital for check-ups.<\/p>\n

Then, moments after the restart, Zarco got caught up in his Francesco Bagnaia<\/a>‘s Ducati in a three-way incident at Turn 1 that also involved Honda’s Luca Marini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Both Marquez and Zarco were conscious following their respective crashes, but had to be taken to the hospital for further check-ups.<\/p>\n

The decision to restart the race for a third time led to backlash from certain quarters, especially due to a lack of information on Marquez and Zarco\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

Factory Aprilia rider Jorge Martin<\/a>, who himself suffered a concussion after crashing in Friday practice, questioned whether there should be a limit on the number of restarts allowed after repeated incidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The issue carries added significance in Barcelona, given the safety concerns surrounding Turn 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really dangerous day out there,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI had some pain because of the crash, but I was really in panic about the situation with Alex. I’m happy that he’s okay and also about Zarco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure, the show must go on, as always. But after three times, maybe it’s time to stop the thing. I don’t know, it’s not in my hands. But for sure, three restarts is quite dangerous. You completely lose concentration and then to go back in\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m confident that I can do it, but there are other riders that cannot. So, I think at that point, it’s quite dangerous to continue restarting because how long could this be? Six, seven times? I don’t know. If this continues happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this is something we need to think about. But as I said before, the important thing is that we are all alive and we can continue doing what we love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex <\/p>\n

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing, Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Qian Jun \/ MB Media \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

HRC\u2019s Marini described Sunday at Barcelona as a \u201cterrible day for us\u201d, saying Zarco\u2019s crash brought back memories of his incident during Suzuka 8 Hours testing that left him with multiple injuries.<\/p>\n

Having been involved in the Turn 1 crash with fellow Honda rider Zarco, he said: \u201cI hope that Alex and Johan will recover well because it was really a terrible day for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the best riders in the world and we know how to be focused in the next start, but it was tough, especially for me. When I saw Johann there with the leg like this, it came to my mind the flash of Suzuka. It was a really really bad feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that I don’t have the adrenaline anymore and all the focus for the race, there is a really bad feeling coming in my stomach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that the medical team did a good job at least for don’t let him feel the pain because I know the pain at that moment. But he is lucky that the ambulance was there quite quickly and now he can be in the hospital resting a bit. I hope that they will come back soon, especially at 100%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked if riders would have preferred not to do another restart, Marini replied \u201cNo, never\u201d, indicating he was happy to finish the race.<\/p>\n

Yamaha rider Alex Rins<\/a> described how difficult it was to wait in the garage for the race to resume after witnessing Marquez lying on the ground following the heavy crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this kind of thing happens, for me the race goes into the second page,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I saw Alex on the floor, my heart broke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really affected, I was trying to breathe a lot in the box because it’s not nice to see a mate on the floor.<\/p>\n

“In the end, we are all humans, but it’s really tough, really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked how MotoGP could deal with such situations, he added: I don’t know. For me, the priority is that the rider is conscious. If the rider is conscious, then my heart becomes normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MotoGP riders have expressed their initial views on a chaotic Catalan Grand Prix, which was interrupted by red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,12763,12764,1322,13183],"class_list":["post-25222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-catalan-gp","tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","tag-motogp","tag-u201cthree-restarts-is-quite-dangerousu201d-motogp-riders-react-after-u201cterrible-dayu201d-in-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}