MotoGP boss defends controversial Catalan GP
MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta has defended the decision to restart Sunday’s Catalan GP twice, despite two major crashes stopping the race.
The 2026 Catalan MotoGP will be remembered less for Fabio di Giannantonio winning, but for the two major crashes that left Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco hospitalised.
The awful accidents caused two separate red flags, but MotoGP has defended its decision to restart the race twice, despite some riders calling out the decision afterwards.
Pedro Acosta and Jorge Martin were two of the riders who thought it was unnecessary to restart for a second time after Johann Zarco was seriously injured. However, MotoGP chief Carmelo Ezpeleta has defended the decision, while also saying that the Barcelona track is not unsafe.
The first stoppage was the worst of the two crashes, as Marquez slammed into Acosta’s KTM when the Spaniard lost speed due to a technical issue.
What happened next was a violent crash that saw the Gresini rider launched through the air, seemingly leaving Marquez momentarily unconscious.
A pile-up at turn one on the first restart led to Zarco suffering injuries to his knee, after the Honda rider had his leg tangled with Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati.
But in an interview with Motorsport.com, Ezpeleta said:
“First, I want to say how fortunate we've been on Sunday. Of course, Alex and Zarco have major injuries, but it didn't get worse. The Alex and Pedro incident is very sort of isolated, it can always happen. It’s stuff that can happen in racing, but it's not sort of the normality, and there's not really a safe concern with the track there.”
With regards to the double restart, Ezpeleta says all the rules were followed correctly, adding:
"Afterwards, the race direction decided to restart the race, which is normal. Then, unfortunately, we had another crash which can happen again in a race start, but again we were very, very unlucky with the dynamic of that crash, and the result of Zarco in his body, in the position and everything. So, again, according to the rules and according to everything, I think race direction and the FIM took all the correct decisions.”
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After graduating with a sports journalism degree, Robert joined Crash.net to lead the WorldSBK coverage in 2021, while also providing MotoGP coverage. Fulfilling that role for over three years, Robert was able to put his knowledge about all things racing to the test.
