MotoGP - "We were very lucky!" MotoGP riders demand action after near-start drama in Spielberg

MotoGP had only one topic of conversation on Saturday evening: Francesco Bagnaia 's sprint debacle. Starting the short race at Spielberg from third place, the Ducati star fell far behind right at the start and retired after just eight laps, lying in last place. Although he didn't mention it later during his media briefing, a defective rear tire was a likely cause . After all, it wouldn't be the first time a MotoGP rider had caught unusually low-grip rubber from standard manufacturer Michelin. But the truth is: Bagnaia wasn't the only rider on Saturday who almost slipped at the start.

Directly behind the two-time MotoGP World Champion, Fermin Aldeguer experienced a similar fate, also coming out of his starting box sideways. However, the Gresini rookie later denied having a defective rear tire – and had good reason for doing so. "Normally, in situations like this, you always think about the tire first, but I tried not to think about it too much during the race," he reported, adding: "I tried to calmly maintain my pace and got faster lap after lap, eventually finishing sixth." Unlike Bagnaia, Aldeguer redeemed himself in the sprint. This raises the question: Was there something else behind the disastrous starts of the two Ducati riders?

"I saw that some starting lines had other, painted-over lines on them. That wasn't the case at the back of the field," Joan Mir said. What exactly did the Honda factory rider mean by that? Quite simple: A few weeks ago , Formula 1 was still visiting the Red Bull Ring. The track officials then painted over the starting gates of the premier four-wheeled class with black paint to make them unrecognizable. And some of the painted-over lines of the F1 starting gates now extend into some MotoGP starting gates. Mir's suspicion: These painted-over lines offer less grip than normal asphalt and could have contributed to the rear wheel spin of Bagnaia and Aldeguer. "They should check that out," the HRC driver said.

An interesting approach, but one with which Mir is probably on the wrong track. A look from the media center down the start-finish straight reveals that these painted lines neither extend directly into a MotoGP starting box nor are they only found on the front left side of the grid. Quite the opposite: The painted lines extend across the entire grid and should therefore pose problems for all MotoGP riders at the start, which, however, was not the case.

Honda teammate Luca Marini therefore brings another aspect into play: the dirt off the racing line. "That was definitely due to that," commented the Italian, receiving support from Aldeguer. "I think the track was quite dirty. I didn't have a problem with rear tires slipping during any of the practice starts," explained the latter, but also admitted that he hadn't conducted any practice starts on the left inside of the grid—the supposedly dirty side. So, in fact, this could be the source of all the trouble, and that, in turn, riled up some MotoGP riders on Saturday evening.

"I had to straighten up and just missed them; we were lucky," fumed Franco Morbidelli , who had to dodge his two teammates and Enea Bastianini. "This is happening more and more often," he continued, and Marini chimed in: "That was pretty dangerous; we were very lucky. We need to talk about it in the Safety Commission. We just had a meeting with them on Thursday about stopping tear-off visors from being thrown on the ground on the grid to prevent exactly this kind of thing. But we also need some support from them."

What Marini wants is clear. There needs to be a regulation for cleaning the starting gates. Cleaning the starting gates by hand is prohibited by the MotoGP regulations, which often gives riders who find their starting gates on the racing line an advantage over those in starting gates off the racing line. Due to the busy track, the former are 'cleaned' of dirt, while the latter remain dirty. In the past, the FIM has occasionally ordered the cleaning of all starting gates – for example, at the Aragon GP a few months ago – but there is no general directive. Much to Marini's annoyance: "It's happened more and more frequently in the last two years that bikes have spun out during acceleration. That's extremely dangerous; we have to prevent that."

Casey Stoner also took a rather harsh dig at the current MotoGP scene on Friday. Markus reveals his exact complaints in this video: