“We’re in the entertainment business.”
Hey gang. Dre here with another two episodes of Dre’s Race Review to cover another big weekend of Motorsport, with Qualifying for the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 (Which we’ll cover tomorrow), and MotoGP’s real home round, the Catalonia Grand Prix from Barcelona. And well… this was another one of those MotoGP race weekends where everything that could have gone wrong, did. Let’s talk about it.
The Review Must Go On1
It’s not the easiest being a bike fan. At its very best, this sport is exhilarating. At its worst, it’s gut-wrenching, nerve-inducing, and it makes you question why you do this. And you’re the twat on the keyboard who thinks he knows best.
The emotional rollercoaster started on Friday, when Jorge Martin had a crash that seemed minor at face value, but was revealed to be anything but. Martin crashed at Turn 12, coming up the hill in the middle of the final sector. The long sweeping right-hander has a very short run-off, and even for a second gear corner, Martin nearly made it to the airfence, with the bike close behind. Both me and Jorge himself both said it reminded him of “El Mexicano”, Luis Salom and his tragic accident that killed him 10 years ago. Salom passed away as a result of crashing at Turn 13, and having the bike recoil off the wall and striking him. Turns 10 and 13 were tightened, and the run off extended to ensure it didn’t happen again, alongside the awful final chicane brought in before what we now call 14.
What was worse was, Martin showed concussion-like symptoms by being disorientated and groggy in the aftermath of his crash. The fact Dr Charte was observing from Martin’s garage during Practice, says to me there was more than hearsay about the idea he was riding with a concussion. If that’s the case, he should have been pulled from the event immediately. If this was Rugby, he’d be forced to sit out for three weeks as a mandatory requirement.
As I’ve said before on this blog, a second heavy impact while concussed can be fatal (Second Impact Syndrome). Most sporting policy now airs on the side of caution, including the FIM’s stance of “If in doubt, sit them out”. I’ll spoil you a little bit from the future to make a point here, Martin would suffer FIVE crashes this weekend*2, including a particularly nasty spill in the race where Raul Fernandez sits up while Martin is mid corner and takes him out at Turn 5. It’s impossible to say for sure, but how much about his form this weekend was as a result of having his bell rung?
I still haven’t forgotten Jack Miller’s chilling words on the subject a few years ago – That if you sat riders for concussions, half the grid would be on the pine. And we’ve seen admittances and several incidents involving riders concussed and have just kept on trucking as if nothing’s happened, from Danilo Petrucci, Diogo Moreira to Deniz Oncu and Tetsuta Nagashima. I fear what it may take for tougher regulation of something so serious as the rest of sports play catchup.
Saturday was a healthy distraction. Another incredible MotoGP sprint race as Pedro Acosta took his second career pole and the first ever for the KTM factory team. In surprise fashion, the main Aprilia threat instead came from Raul Fernandez, who interjected in the fight for the lead, before fading late on due to tyre wear. It was another brilliant fight between Pedro Acosta and Alex Marquez, with the latter barely holding up from an Acosta at the limit of himself and his tyres to win the closest MotoGP Sprint we’ve ever had – Just 0.041 seconds, barely two feet. We’ve had six Sprints in MotoGP’s 2026 season, I suspect five of them have been awesome. The format change has objectively worked as far as I’m concerned.
Then came Sunday.
It was playing up a similar edition of what the Sprint was. Acosta takes the holeshot and leads the first 11 laps of the race. Alex Marquez is banging on the door within a quarter of a second. Then… It happened.
Pedro Acosta’s bike suddenly cuts out at the start of the back straight before Turn 10. With Alex Marquez only three tenths of a second directly behind him, by the time Acosta’s hand goes up to signal a problem, it’s too late. Marquez smashes into the back of Acosta’s bike, then veers into the grass on the right side of the straight, falling off as his Ducati goes into the wall and disintegrates all over the back straight. Fabio di Giannantonio is peppered by a shower of destroyed bike parts, the front tyre actually striking his hand. It was rough enough for him to sit out of Monday’s open test the following day.
Alex Marquez laid prone on the ground. Thankfully, he was still conscious. He was driven away in an Ambulance, aware enough to give a thumbs up to the crowd as he was wheeled in.
We got lucky. Damn lucky. Alex “only” broke his clavicle and his M7. He was operated on that night and walked out of hospital just a few hours ago. I dread to think what could have been if he was still holding the bike as he hit that wall.
There’s no-one to blame, no-one to point fingers too. This truly was a freak accident. No human being has the reaction speed to dodge Acosta’s bike when even he barely knew what was going on before the point of impact. But it did beg some tough questions.
All four KTM’s had technical problems across the weekend. Brad Binder cut out on the grid and had to start from pit lane. Enea Bastianini had an engine failure in the early going. Maverick Vinales had one too in the Sprint race. Race Direction had a word with KTM but was cleared to continue. Now, I genuinely don’t know how many issues are too many before you say: “Your bikes are unsafe, pull them.” It’s a pretty unprecedented scenario, MotoGP bikes are generally very reliable these days. For four to break down over a weekend is a unicorn. But is that too many? You tell me.
After nearly half an hour, we got to go again. But if you know Barcelona, you know there’s always a chance of the Turn 1 pinch.
Barcelona’s unique. It has one of, if not the longest run down to Turn 1 on the calendar. Nearly two thirds of a kilometre. At full speed with a running start, you’re hitting 225mph and braking to get down to 55mph. Even with the shorter run-up, you’re still in sixth by the time you get there. It’s a corner with grim history. It wasn’t that long ago Taka Nakagami bounced his head against the rear of a Ducati as he locked his brake into the corner, breaking Alex Rins’ wrist on the way down. Enea Bastianini went for a lunge off the line in 2023, and collected almost every other Ducati on track at once. It’s what happens when you’re hitting one of the biggest braking points of the year and coming into a 90 degree right hander that comes back on itself.
And of course, it happens again, twice across the weekend. Diggia nudged Brad Binder during the Sprint and took out Joan Mir on the outside of the curve. And then again on the restart. Johann Zarco locks a break going into the corner, and crashes into Pecco Bagnaia and Luca Marini. The nightmare is quickly realised as Zarco gets his leg trapped in the frame of Pecco’s bike, tearing the ligaments of his knee and cracking his ankle. Thankfully, while Zarco left the track via ambulance, he was released from the hospital today and is heading back to France to see a specialist in regards to his knee.
It’s another questionable day for Barcelona as a track. Suggestions have been made about it for years to make it safer. Moving the start/finish line down to reduce speeds on entry. Reprofiling the corner. Resurfacing the track in general has been on the to-do list for years, many riders complained that it was like racing on ice, the tarmac being a tyre shredder for over a decade. With the changes to Turn 10 and 13, it’s proved that the place is prepared to make changes for the greater good, but I feel like more still needs to be done. The first major red was unavoidable. This wasn’t.
At this point, I was genuinely wondering why we were doing this. I’d have been more than happy to take a half-points win for Acosta and we all just go home. I think I, like many fans were, was just battling their morality. If you’re one of us, you know the score. I was thinking of Noah Dettwiler and Jose Antonio Rueda, who were clinically dead on the track during the Moto3 race in Sepang, and we cracked on despite knowing very little about their condition. I thought about the incorrect declaration that they were conscious by the series despite needing CPR on the side of the track. I thought about the passing of Jason Dupasquier, Luis Salom, and Shoya Tomizawa.
It’s feelings that rise to the surface when you see another rider wheeled into an ambulance. You know it’s coming, you know it’s inevitable when you ask 22 people to sit on a 2,000 bhp per ton missile that weighs 157 kilos, eventually, something is going to go wrong. You just hope they don’t become a statistic.
But the show must go on, right? The sport is obligated to deliver at least 20 Grand Prix in their TV window to get their bread. At all costs. So much so we saw in Le Mans that we can just butcher Moto2/3 race lengths if it means protecting their Premier Class slot. And despite the horrendous vibes, seeing Alex Marquez be wiped out across an entire back straight and Johann Zarco trapping his leg inside a bike, we had to get a glorified second Sprint in. Right?
The cruel irony was, the 12 lap race we did get was great. Best racing of the year. Jorge Martin looked stronger before being taken out by Raul Fernandez at Turn 5, his fifth crash of the weekend. Acosta desperately clinging on trying to get his first win despite his KTM’s tires fading rapidly at the end of the race. The shock of Joan Mir running a legitimate second and at the absolute limit of his powers trying to beat Acosta on the brakes into Turn 1 and making shapes in the process.
And then the shock of Diggia looking after his tyres, taking them both at Turn 10, and shooting off in the distance to win his first race since beating Pecco Bagnaia at his very best in Qatar back in 2023. The man who took a tyre to the fairing less than an hour earlier, was now celebrating victory. Not sure if there’s anything more MotoGP than that.
Oh, and one last jump scare as Ai Ogura wiped out Acosta on the final corner of the last lap trying to be Valentino Rossi. Bugger.
My closing thoughts on the weekend? It may be time for another big renovation for the circuit. Resurfacing for sure. Turn 12 needs more run-off, even if it means sacrificing grandstand space. Upping the radical steps might be reprofiling Turn 1 and no longer making it a chicane sequence to stop it being such a dramatic pinch point.
The most radical step of all? Forming a riders union. It’s been beyond time. The riders need a seat at the table. There needs to be someone in the paddock with the organisational nouse to form a unified voice that represents the 22 seats on the grid. They are the lambs that have and will make the ultimate sacrifice for the sport. The sport needs a proactive attitude when it comes to safety and change. It shouldn’t have to come down to Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco leaving the track in an ambulance for us to have these conversations. The riders inherit all the risk. The least we can do is have them draw their own line in the sand, rather than a sport that I struggle to trust in 2026.
This weekend was the good, the bad and the ugly for all things MotoGP. To borrow an old analogy of mine – Everyone loves a good sausage, but you’d never want to know how it’s made. And MSEG just took us all on a guided tour to the sausage factory.
The Lightning Round
Pecco Bagnaia and Luca Marini stayed with Johann Zarco until the medical staff got there. Bike racers if nothing else, are a band of brothers. Touching.
Pecco Bagnaia breaks Ducati’s podium dry spell for the factory team, their first in 11 races. And he was still four seconds off the best Ducati in a 12 lap race. Man.
Five riders got hit with tyre pressure penalties after the race, including second place finisher Joan Mir. Even I have to say that is horrendously shitty luck – He was 0.004 bar over the limit. They need to scrap the rule for restarts in my opinion, because you’re asking the engineers to predict an inherently unpredictable race, and then moving the goalposts when the race distance gets cut in half out of nowhere. It feels… unfair.
Remember when Massimo Rivola sent his condolences to Trackhouse after Ogura’s engine died in Austin? Very different kind of visit when he rolled out after Raul Fernandez took Martin out. First of all, what did Rivola expect? It’s not Davide’s fault his rider collected a rival. Two, how did Simon Crafar miss that one? His first serious missed call as Chief Steward in my opinion.
It does make for an interesting dynamic though. Aprilia had a terrible weekend by their standards – Just one point in the Sprint, and by all accounts, lucky fourth place for Bez in the GP. This was a chance for Bez to lay the finishing blow for the Championship battle. Now Diggia’s only 26 points behind, and Marc Marquez is only down 85. A long shot, but not insurmountable given the peak of his ability. And one more note – Easily, the most vulnerable Aprilia’s been all season and showing they haven’t got all the answers quite yet.
Fermin Aldeguer might have just had the quietest second place finish in MotoGP history. Where the hell did that come from?!
Not the best weekend for KTM to announce a new three-year partnership with Tech3, was it? I’m glad the factory is seemingly more committed to actually racing under new management if nothing else, but will CFMoto push for more racing influence in the future? Keep an eye on XZMoto over in World Supersport too, with Valentine Debise. Without a doubt, China is coming, it’s a matter of when, not if.
That’s also three Top 6 finishes in the last four Sprints and GP’s by Fabio Quartararo. Satan’s strongest soldier.
Valentino Rossi said the quiet part out loud, he wants an Italian on his bike for 2027. Which one are you taking – Morbidelli? Marini homecoming? Vietti? Maybe even Nicolo Bulega? If winning 18 World Superbike races in a row isn’t enough, what is?
Manu Gonzalez with the best Moto2 race win of his career, and he knew it when he crossed the line. He wasn’t in tears because he won, it was because it was the first dub by a man from Madrid in Barcelona in years.
Sprint Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Excellent) – Another excellent Sprint race that kept you intrigued the whole way through with a handful of interesting contenders and a fight all the way to the line. Not many races suck when there’s a foot in it at the line.
Doesn’t feel appropriate to score this one. If you’re watching the whole experience here, there’s two gruesome crashes that may affect that experience, so brace yourself. But I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say the final 12 lap restart was the best racing MotoGP’s had in 2026. An awesome, tense fight where we had a leading group of five towards the end and action again, all the way to the flag. Just wish we didn’t have to go through *gestures* all the other shit first. See you at Mugello.