Johann Zarco thanks Pecco Bagnaia for his "humanity” after horror MotoGP crash

A video clip posted by LCR Honda has shown Johann Zarco thanking Pecco Bagnaia “for showing such humanity” towards him after his horror MotoGP crash at Barcelona.

The Frenchman was involved in a tangle with Honda’s Luca Marini and Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia at Turn 1 of May’s Catalan Grand Prix.

The LCR rider’s leg became stuck in Bagnaia’s Ducati as it bounced through the gravel trap.

Both Bagnaia and Marini immediately ran to Zarco while they waited for medical staff to reach the crash scene.

Zarco, miraculously, escaped serious injury and was able to avoid surgery, though was absent from racing for over 100 days.

He is staging his comeback this weekend at the Aragon Grand Prix, impressing on Friday by being the only Honda rider inside the top 10 at the end of Practice.

In a video posted by the LCR team on social media, Zarco offered his gratitude to Bagnaia.

“I wanted to see you to thank you for showing such humanity in the gravel at Catalunya,” he said.

“It’s going good. It’s not a lot bigger. I put some cold on it.

“And thanks to this wound, I could avoid [the surgery].

“I had to wait for the surgery because there was a risk of infection. And after a month and a half, we saw that maybe we could avoid [the operation].”

Zarco was deemed to have been at fault for the incident by the FIM MotoGP Stewards and has been assessed a double long lap penalty for the Aragon Grand Prix.

Talking about his return on Friday, Zarco said: “About the leg, no pain, but the muscles needed a bit of time to get used to the position again.

“I immediately got a little bit of cramp, which I took care of after the session.

“Again, tonight I will have a good massage on the legs to relax a bit the legs because the cramps can be a problem.

“But this afternoon, immediately, the pace was faster and more intense, and we were back in the sport! I said, ‘Wow, that's intense!’

“In the first time attack, I was with Alex Marquez, so a perfect guy to follow, but I was not fast enough and thought that would be a problem to be in the top ten.

“On the last tyre, I could not [follow] the guy I wanted, but I tried to do everything good and it worked.”