The many injured MotoGP riders
At the start of Argentine Grand Prix on Sunday they only showed up 17 pilots: 5 centaurs had to raise the white flag due to their respective injuries. Honda HRC was unable to field any riders, due to the concussion sustained by Joan Mir and the hand injury to Marc Marquez, while the Aprilia RNF team had to do without Miguel Oliveira, the victim of a rotator tendon injury outside of the leg, the official Ducati of Enea Bastianini, stopped by a fractured scapula and the KTM GasGas gave up on Pol Espargarò, struggling with a fractured jaw and a vertebra and a pulmonary contusion. For the next race in Austin, the latter will certainly be absent and will be replaced by Jonas Folger, while for the other four there are concrete possibilities of recovery.
The Sprint, a triumph
When announcing the introduction of Sprint races, Dorna and FIM had clarified that it was an idea put on the track to increase interest in the MotoGP, after the recent crisis in the public. The first listening figures seem to be comforting, according to what was declared by Carmelo Ezpeleta: “I don’t think there can be anyone who is not in favor of the new format. I don’t see the need to change anything at the moment, although we don’t rule out doing so in the future.
What is certain is that the Sprint it will stay, because it is a good format that has made us get an audience we haven’t seen since before 2019. Saturday audiences almost doubled and Sunday audiences also increased“. On the negative comments relating to the elimination of the Warm Up of the minor categories, he replied: “If we could have kept them, we would have. But to be able to make the parade of the pilots, it is necessary to have an empty track”.
Ezpeleta silences critics
There were many controversies that erupted following the various accidents of the first two races and the difficulties of homogeneous sanctions by the Commissioners. In the interview given to AsCarmelo Ezpeleta explained: “The contacts? They cannot be discussed, our sport is like this. We all know that. Next year will be the 75th anniversary of the World Championship and if you wanted to avoid contact, you would do an individual time trial and the fastest would win. But this is not what people want to see. I believe the incidents at the Portimao weekend were caused by everyone thinking this was their chance. They didn’t happen because it was a Sprint and because there was another race the day after.”commented the CEO of Dorna.
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