Raging Johann Zarco at Catalunya MotoGP: Enea Bastianini tried to be “a hero” - crash could’ve been “tragic”
A pile-up on the first lap was triggered by ꦛthe factory ꦅDucati rider who was starting from 14th due to a three-place grid penalty.
His attempt to make up several positions resulted in a massive𒁃 pile-up i🌺ncluding Zarco, Alex Marquez, Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio di Giananantonio.
Separately, but moments later, ꦗwas the far more serious-looking collision between the floored Francesco Ba🔥gnaia and the oncoming Brad Binder.
Pramac Racing rider Zarco reflected on the first-lap chaos: “I tried to control the first corner, to n🍌ot hit Binder or Oliveira.
“I got hit by Bastianini. [Sa꧟turday], alsꦬo. I didn’t go into the corner because Bastianini was coming.
“He was lucky that I didn’t go into th🌱e corner yesterday. Today, I wa♑s, when he arrived.
“He tried to gain more than six pos🦹itions at the start. This can🎃 happen, sometimes.
“You are a hero when it happens. But, most♔ of the time, it﷽ can be tragic.
“Fortunately, there was a red flag. Not 🐭because of our multi-crash, b🌱ut because of the crash of Pecco.”
Zarco was asked why the Barcelona cir𓃲cuit can become a hotspot𓂃 for big accidents.
“Because there is always someon♚e who switches too much,” he claimed.
“🌊Last year it was Takaaki Nakagami, this year it was Bastianini.
“Maybe it can 𒁃happen because the first turn🅘 is tight. But not so tight…”
Zarco insꦗisted that any set-up changes or tweaks made for the track are no excuse for riders to pass recklessly.
“This information,ꦛ the riders must know it and take it into consideration,” he said.
“But,𝓡 some of them don’t tꦏake it into consideration.
“I know many things can happen at the fi൩rst turn, at the start, the moment where you can gain the most positions.
“We need to accept that it’s not a great weekend. To gain three positions or six positions, okay, this can change you𒆙r race.
“But it can become a disaster.
“It’s more the riders that need to contꦿr𝔉ol a bit.
“I’m like the old man speaking, that we s🏅hould control ourselves!
“People say y🐎ou൲ miss your start or lose position. But I accept it, and try to come back.”
Bas꧙tianini was hit with a double long lap penalty for the manoeuvre꧒ which enraged Zarco.
But he couldnಌ’t restart due to injuries sustained in the pile-up so must serve the penalty wheneve🌱r he returns.
Zarco reacted to Bastianini’s punishment:🐭 “It’s hard to say which penalty we should get.
“A long lap penalty here destroys your r💟ace because, in Barcelona, it’s like𝕴 going to see the cathedral then coming back!”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering𒆙 everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
