‘The bad part of racing’: Catalunya MotoGP sprint tangle victims give their view

Honda’s Joan Mir says there was “nothing I could do” to avoid the Turn 1 collision with Brad Binder at the start of the 2026 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix sprint.

VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio tagged KTM’s Brad Binder on the inside of Turn 1 at the start of Saturday’s sprint at Barcelona.

The contact knocked Binder down, with the South African skidding into Honda’s Joan Mir as a consequence.

Both riders were unharmed, while the stewards took no further action on the incident after a review during the sprint.

‘I took the bad part from racing’

Mir says the crash was a result of the nature of Turn 1 at Barcelona, while lamenting the missed opportunity to capitalise on his strong race pace.

“When you start 10th, from the outside, in this track you arrive to Turn 1, you arrive super-fast and something happened on the inside,” he explained.

“There was a contact with Di Giannantonio and Binder, something like that, and because I was on the inside, I took the bad part from the racing.

“So, nothing I could do. That’s a bit the reality. It’s a shame because I think my pace was good.

“In FP2 we had very good pace, so I think we could be fighting with those guys today. But tomorrow we have another chance.”

From Binder’s perspective, he added: “Well, not much to say really.

“I had a decent enough qualifying. It would have been nice to get a little bit further forward.

“But step by step it’s gone a bit better. When I launched today, it was pretty good.

“I started eighth, I was more or less about fifth, sixth place at Turn 1, more or less, I think.

“And then I just felt something hit on my inside, on my seat and my leg, and that was about it. Just got tagged on the inside and that was about it.”