Bizarre scenes in Moto3 at Assen: rider gets run over but carries on

The early phase of Sunday’s first race initially went smoothly. A few minutes into the race, however, things went horribly wrong: Carpe crashed and took title contender Cruces down with him. What happened next sent a shockwave through the crowd: Cruces, who no longer had control of his bike, ran over Carpe before crashing himself.

Often, it’s incidents like these that sideline motorcycle racers for a long time—or worse. To everyone’s surprise, however, Carpe was back on his feet within seconds, then climbed back on his bike as if nothing had happened. He circulated at the back for a while but withdrew for unknown reasons five laps from the finish. Cruces had to retire due to a technical problem.

Maximo Quiles, who started from pole, initially lost the lead to David Almansa but managed to reclaim it later on. The championship leader ultimately won the Moto3 race at the TT Circuit Assen, followed by Almansa and Marco Morelli, who completed the podium.