Pedro Acosta critical of decision to restart Catalunya MotoGP after two red flags

KTM’s Pedro Acosta says it was “not necessary” to have restarted the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix after the second red flag on Sunday afternoon.

The Barcelona race was halted twice for separate serious incidents.

The first came on lap 12 of 24, when an electrical issue for Pedro Acosta’s race-leading KTM exiting Turn 9 onto the back straight led to Gresini’s Alex Marquez running into him.

Marquez suffered several fractures in the crash, while Acosta escaped unscathed.

A second red flag was shown after a crash involving Johann Zarco, Pecco Bagnaia and Luca Marini at Turn 1 at the beginning of the first restart.

The race was eventually run over 12 laps, with Fabio Di Giannantonio winning, while Acosta crashed on the final tour after contact with Ai Ogura.

“The show is important… but we are the ones making the show”

Acosta declined to comment on his collision with Ogura, but took aim at MotoGP’s decision to restart the race after the second red flag.

“Well, I don’t want to really talk about the race because I think the most important thing today is Alex and Johann; it looks like, [after] they took the worst part of everything, are fine,” he told TNT.

“For this, waiting for some news about both. The race, everything that could go wrong, went wrong today, it looks like.

“I have an electric problem. In the straight I went from going full [gas] to not having any throttle in the hand.

“Everything went really badly. For this, I don’t think it’s necessary to talk about the race.

“I mean, I went with the other bike, the bike was ok. But it’s never easy to come back again after a not nice situation, like we lived through today, after a very big crash for Alex.

“Also, I don’t really think it’s necessary after two red flags to go again for a third try.

“For this, I think these things are not really necessary. At the end of the day, the show is important, but we are the ones that make the show.

“For this, it’s not so nice to make three races today.”

He added: “Like I say, it’s not necessary to have a third try of something that can go really bad. The show is important, but at the end of the day we are the ones who are making the show.”

Aprilia’s Jorge Martin echoed these comments, noting: “I don’t know if it was necessary to continue with the show, because after these incidents, the ambulances on the track, I think we have to think a bit also on the human side.

“I mean, for me, it’s not a problem to continue racing. I can get into concentration.

“Every race I was doing I was feeling stronger and stronger. So, I had the potential for the victory. But, this is racing.”