Anger After Portugal Moto2 Crash Scare
Grid Talk Reporter 17:01 24/04/2022
MotoGP race direction has come under fire following Sunday’s Portimao Moto2 race in which riders were fortunate to avoid severe injuries and which could have a significant impact on the title race in the middleweight class.
Starting after the premier-class race instead of before in order to ensure the main event avoided a clash with Formula 1’s race at Imola, Moto2 got the worst conditions of the day, with rain starting to fall just after the start and continuing to come down lightly as Arón Canet, Cameron Beaubier and Ai Ogura battled for the lead. When that rain intensified, it brought devastating consequences, with not just the leading three but a further eight riders joining them in the gravel trap in near simultaneous crashes and creating a horrifying spectacle of destruction, fire and lucky escapes, with Ogura even forced to leap over the tumbling body of Sam Lowes before the British rider’s Elf Marc VDS bike exploded into flames.
Lowes was one of the slightly more lucky riders from the crash, over-extending his elbow and being left with considerable pain but not breaking anything. Race leader Canet wasn’t as fortunate, smashing his arm and hand in the high-speed fall and left fuming at the organisers as he prepares for surgery that will likely force him to miss his home race at Jerez this upcoming weekend. "It’s a shame (about) today’s crash caused by the rain,” he said. “I was leading the race and I’m sad. I hope it doesn’t happen again and that the race direction stops the race earlier, since the risk of the riders is played with. Now we travel to Barcelona to operate on the left radius and see the fracture of the little finger, since the injuries are more serious than we thought.”
Race control being slow to red flag not just races but any weekend session has been common in MotoGP of late. It was particularly notable last time out at the Circuit of the Americas, when in Moto3 practice Alberto Surra laid at the side of the track in what appeared to be quite a dangerous location for over two minutes before the session was suspended and medical personnel could tend to him. While the issue with the red flag was one source of controversy, there was another still to come, when all of the machines that fell in the pile-up were prevented from restarting the race. That allowed American Joe Roberts to take his first victory and championship leader Celestino Vietti to dramatically turn around a poor weekend with second place.
There’s a rule in place which says that all bikes and riders must return to the pits within five minutes of a race being red-flagged if they wish to join the restart, but the regulation was amended in 2019 to allow race direction to extend this window in exceptional circumstances - a situation that was surely met by Sunday’s crash. Yet that clause wasn’t executed, with race control electing to kick off a wholly new sprint race of only seven laps yet choosing to award full points for it, a move which handed Vietti a decisive 20-point extension to his title lead that could be key come the end of the season.
In the Moto3 race, GasGas Aspar's Sergio García took his second win of the season to go back to the top of the standings by one point over Leopard Honda rider Dennis Foggia. Sterilgarda Max Husqvarna's Ayumu Sasaki has led entering the final lap, but García was able to get past him at turn 1, and subsequently hold off Jaume Masià (Red Bull KTM Ajo) for the win by just 0.069 seconds. Tech3 KTM rider Deniz Öncü was fourth, as García's GasGas stablemate Izan Guevara completed the top 5 in Portimao
