Acosta's puncture causes two scary crashes and red flag in Barcelona

Pedro Acosta suffered a puncture on Lap 12 of the Catalan Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Spaniard raised his hand to signal a problem, but with Alex Marquez following closely behind, the Gresini rider clipped the back of Acosta’s KTM before crashing heavily on the back straight. The medical director later confirmed that Marquez was conscious, and has been taken to hospital for further examination.

Due to the flying debris, Fabio Di Giannantonio also crashed at Turn 10. The Italian was able to return to the pit lane on his bike. The VR46 rider will be on the restart grid after he was signaling that his hand was hurt.

The race was immediately red-flagged, while Acosta was helped back to the pits by the two Pramac Racing riders, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jack Miller. Raul Fernandez also visited the medical centre.

The restart did not go smoothly either. Into Turn 1, Johann Zarco, Francesco Bagnaia and Luca Marini all crashed out. Bagnaia and Marini were able to walk away from the incident, but the medical car was deployed for LCR Honda rider Zarco. The medical director later confirmed that all riders remained conscious.