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There were enough stories at the myWorld Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich at the Red Bull Ring in Austria Sunday to fill half a dozen races. But the one that will be remembered longest was a terrifying crash that could have killed Valentino Rossi or Maverick Viñales if things had happened just a few inches or a fraction of a second different.
Nine laps into the MotoGP race, Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco touched and the two motorcycles crossed the gravel trap on their own, riderless, before re-entering the track and nearly hitting the two Monster Energy Yamaha factory riders. All angles of the crash can be seen in this video at MotoGP.com.
Rossi was visibly shaken when he saw how close he had come to getting hit by a flying motorcycle.
An understandably shaken @ValeYellow46...#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/UB0fdyx0TG
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 16, 2020
Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.
Another hair-raising crash also brought out a red flag in the Moto2 race when Enea Bastianini crashed, his motorcycle spinning on its side in the middle of the track. Most riders missed it, but Hafizh Syahrin smashed into the downed bike, sending debris flying. One large chunk of that debris, the front wheel and fork, very nearly landed on Dominique Aegerter, as you can see in the video below.
How lucky was @DomiAegerter77 ??@birtymotogp @SteveDay @simoncrafar pic.twitter.com/4wKlGySkcl
— Aaqhil Hussain (@Aaqhil) August 16, 2020
MotoGP.com also posted a full video of the Moto2 incident.
The two red flags overshadowed a great story in itself, as Andrea Dovizioso continued his string of strong performances at the Red Bull Ring by winning the MotoGP race one day after he announced he is departing the Ducati factory team at the end of the season. Relations have been strained between Dovioso and the Ducati team for some time.
There were other stories, too, from Alex Rins crashing out of the lead to struggles by points leader Fabio Quartararo. But mostly people were just happy the day won't be remembered as the day another MotoGP star died.
