The latest race in the Moto GP season had to be stopped after Alex Marquez suffered a brutal crash that left him needing to be taken to hospital.
Spanish racer Marquez crashed into the back of leader Pedro Acosta, who was out in front at the Catalunya Grand Prix after 12 laps of 24.
His bike lost power on the straight, and he had tried to warn riders behind him, but Marquez was left with no time to react.
He crashed into the back of the KTM and he and his bike headed for the wall before cartwheeling through the air.
Marquez was immediately attended to by paramedics as the race was halted, before it was eventually restarted later.
At the restart, former Moto2 champion Johann Zarco crashed and was also taken to hospital, which resulted in a second red flag of the race.
Alex Marquez suffered a brutal crash in Sunday’s MotoGP race that saw him taken to hospital
The Spanish rider crashed into an opponent and was thrown into a wall with the race stopped
Fabio di Giannantonio, who was hit by debris in the first crash, was able to recover to win.
Marquez had won the sprint race on Saturday and was hopeful of success on Sunday too.
But things didn’t work out that way, and it was later confirmed he was conscious in hospital.
Speaking after the race, TNT Sports pundit Sylvain Guintoli said: ‘These types of crashes can be very dangerous when you have parts of bikes flying around the way Alex Marquez crashed.
‘We really hope that there’s nothing bad with Alex. Unfortunately, when you have odd crashes like this, when you have speed differences like this, this is where really serious things can happen, so fingers crossed. It’s one of those where you just hope for no bad news.’
