Fabio Di Giannantonio wins Catalunya MotoGP marred by two major crashes
Fabio Di Giannantonio won a shortened Catalan Grand Prix after two red flags
Fabio Di Giannantonio scored a first MotoGP win in three years in a 2026 Catalan Grand Prix marred by two major incidents, with the race stopped twice.
The original grand prix was red-flagged on lap 12 of 24 after a terrifying incident involving Pedro Acosta and Alex Marquez.
Acosta’s KTM suffered a technical issue exiting Turn 9 onto the back straight and lost power, with Marquez slamming into the back of him.
He speared off track into a sickening crash, with Marquez taken to hospital after being reported as conscious.
VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was also caught up in that incident, after being hit by an errant wheel from Marquez’s bike and hurting his hand.
The race was restarted at just before 3pm local time, but was instantly stopped when Johann Zarco, Luca Marini and Pecco Bagnaia collided at the opening corner.
Zarco got tangled up in one of the crashed bikes and has been taken to hospital for checks on his left leg.
A second restart was run over 12 laps, with Di Giannantonio coming through to take his first win since 2023 and the first for VR46 since that season despite the injury to his hand.
Honda’s Joan Mir was second, while Fermin Aldeguer was third. However, the result may yet change, as tyre pressure investigations are taking place for Mir and fifth-placed Pecco Bagnaia.
If they are docked 16 seconds, Marco Bezzecchi will find himself elevated to third from sixth at the end of a tough weekend for the championship leader.
Acosta was able to take both restarts on his second bike and started from pole in both, with the Spaniard leading into Turn 1 after grabbing the holeshot from Jorge Martin and Raul Fernandez.
But Aprilia’s Martin was taken down after Trackhouse’s Fernandez collided with him at Turn 5 trying to overtake.
Di Giannantonio got into the podium places on lap four when he overtook Ducati’s Bagnaia, who had to run a medium rear instead of the soft that the leaders were using.
Four laps later, the VR46 rider moved ahead of Honda’s Mir for second, who hounded Acosta across the opening eight tours.
Acosta succumbed to Di Giannantonio’s advances at Turn 10 on lap 10, with Mir soon moving through on Acosta, and then Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer.
Di Giannantonio took the chequered flag 1.2s clear of Mir to claim Ducati’s second grand prix win of the season.
Acosta was hit by Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura at the last corner, after the Japanese rider tried a move for fourth on the final lap, with the former going down.
Ogura was hit with a penalty, dropping him to ninth and provisionally promoting Bagnaia to fourth ahead of Bezzecchi, who holds a 13-point championship lead now.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was sixth ahead of Honda’s Luca Marini, KTM’s Brad Binder, Ogura and LCR Honda’s Diogo Moreira.
Alex Rins (Yamaha), Franco Morbidelli (VR46), Maverick Vinales (Tech3), Jack Miller (Pramac) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac) completed the points scorers.
Martin rejoined the race to finish 18th.
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