Francesco Bagnaia escapes without serious injury after his heavy highsider – Brad Binder goes through “worst nightmare “
Besides the mass crash in turn 1, it was the scariest moment at the Catalunya Grand Prix in Barcelona: Francesco Bagnaia, in the lead, is thrown from his Ducati by a highsider on the exit of the first left and is hit on the leg by Brad Binder, who is unable to avoid him.
Bagnaia moves, is conscious but remains on the track for the time being. He receives first aid on the spot and is taken to the Medical Centre by ambulance. He is then taken to the clinic for further examination.
According to initial information, the world championship leader was lucky. MotoGP doctor Angel Charte told DAZN Spain: “‘Pecco’ is okay. He was run over by a motorbike in the thigh and shin area. We did an X-ray and found a small injury, which we don’t know if it’s current or old.”
A computer tomography scan is expected to shed light on the matter. However, Bagnaia had not injured himself seriously, he said. “No abnormalities were found in the area of the skull, chest and abdomen. Pecco was conscious, oriented and there were no other problems,” said Charte, giving an initial all-clear.
However, Bagnaia is complaining of pain in his tailbone, Ducati’s sporting director Paolo Ciabatti reveals in an interview with Sky Italia. “I think it’s from the highsider.”
Update 6:40 p.m.: Ducati announces via X that Bagnaia has suffered several bruises, but further medical examinations have not revealed any fractures. He will fly to Italy with the team later this evening.
Binder: “The worst nightmare of every rider “
Binder, who took part in the restart after the race was abandoned but retired with a technical defect, admits: “It’s difficult just to keep going. The good thing was that I saw him moving. I knew I had ‘only’ caught his leg.”
“But at the end of the day, it’s every rider’s worst nightmare. Just seeing someone there is scary, but hitting him with the bike is the worst. I’m just glad he’s okay considering the circumstances. I was with him at the medical centre. And when I went in there, I didn’t expect to see him so chilled out. Thank God he’s okay,” Binder
said.
His bike started smoking right away in the collision. “I think something from his bike got caught in my radiator even before I hit him,” explained the KTM rider. “I couldn’t see purely because I had Miguel and Maverick (Vinales) in front of me.”
“The first thing I saw was his bike here and him there. I was still trying to avoid him but something grazed my bike and then I hit his feet or his leg,” Binder recapped of the collision with Bagnaia.
MotoGP colleagues relieved after initial all-clear
Vinales, who was in third place at the moment of Bagnaia’s highsider, says: “It was really scary. You try to avoid him, of course, and at the same time you think, woah, he was in the middle of the track. So I was worried.”
“When I got to the pits, I saw a couple of marshals making it clear that he was okay. That reassured me a bit. But it was scary. Luckily he’s okay.”
Getting back on track after the incidents shortly after the start was also difficult for VR46-Ducati’s Luca Marini. “Especially because Pecco was also affected, with whom I, with whom we have a close friendship. His accident shocked me when I saw the replay on TV. But fortunately he’s fine and hasn’t suffered any serious injuries,” said the Italian with relief.
“But at the end of the day, we are all professional racers and we have the mental strength to make a fresh start in these circumstances. It happens to us all the time in our careers. Fortunately, everything went smoothly on the second start.”
However, Marini ponders the cause of Bagnaia’s crash: “It was strange. I don’t know what happened. Maybe he didn’t get the tyre up to temperature properly on the warm-up lap. But Pecco is smart and an experienced rider, so it could have been something else.”
Honda rider Marc Marquez conjectured, agreed on possible causes: “I don’t know what happened. But today in the warm-up I took a long time with my bike to warm up the medium rear tyre on the left flank. So that could be a reason. And when you have a lot of confidence in your bike and you’re always fast in the races, mistakes like that can happen.”
According to Ciabatti, Bagnaia himself cannot explain the highsider. “He doesn’t think he did anything unusual, so we have to investigate the cause of the crash. As we don’t know the reasons yet, we don’t want to comment on it. “
