“I did a front flip”: Riders talk Turn 1 chaos in Austria

Marco Bezzecchi, Johann Zarco and Miguel Oliveira were forced out by the damage while Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini dropped to the back of the field.

The incident began when Jorge Martin dived to the inside under braking, with Quartararo then squeezed between the Pramac Ducati rider and Vinales, who was turning in after a bad start from the front row.

Once tangled, the trio went straight on, collecting Bezzecchi and setting off a domino effect with the others.

Martin emerged from the chaos in sixth and went on to claim third place, behind Francesco Bagnaia and Brad Binder.

Late on Saturday evening the Pramac Ducati rider, who escaped a penalty for a separate incident with Luca Marini, was given a long lap penalty for ‘riding in an irresponsible manner causing a crash’.

But while Martin kept his podium and remains second in the world championship, Bezzecchi’s second DNF in a row means he has now slipped 59 points from Bagnaia.

Martin insisted the incident was not his fault and that he had been squeezed by riders on the outside. This is what some of the others involved had to say:

Marco Bezzecchi:

“Immediately after the crash, I didn't know exactly what happened. Then when I saw the video, I understood… I think the video is quite clear. You can see for yourself.

“[I was] angry a little bit, but more sad because today it was important for me to finish the race, also to see something about tomorrow. But it's like this.

“I'm more angry for [qualifying]. Because probably if I made a better lap time, I could avoid this situation in the first corner.

“[Tomorrow] I have to see how I will feel physically because I got a big hit in both my shoulders. In the right one, I got hit by the handlebar of Maverick and in the left one I hit the ground very hard.

“Because after Maverick hit me, probably if no one was outside I could go just [wide] on the red and shake a little bit with the airbag open. But unfortunately, Zarco was there. So when I hit Zarco, I make like a front flip!”

Fabio Quartararo:

“I think you could see pretty well what happened. I don't want to get into [what other riders did] because I think that every rider does what he wants and at the end the responsibility of putting the penalties is about the three Stewards. So they are doing hopefully the job that they have to do.

“The good thing is today I did the best start ever in a race…. [Then] I could do nothing more and I just tried to survive.”

Maverick Vinales:

“I didn't see what happened yet, I just felt hits from everywhere!”

Johann Zarco:

“Jorge did an amazing start, but he was very optimistic when he overtook Fabio. Because with the super good start he did he could maybe just keep a little [more] reserved. He put himself in a very good position. But knowing also Fabio is a very strong braker, he pushed Fabio to be at the limit. Then there is this first corner where it’s very complicated inside the first corner.”