Brad Binder has detailed how he felt as he hit MotoGP championship leader Pecco Bagnaia’s legs amid a terrifying Catalan Grand Prix crash, and his relief at talking to a seemingly relatively OK Bagnaia in the medical centre afterwards.
Bagnaia had high-sided off his Ducati while trying to build an early buffer coming out of Turn 2, landing right in the middle of the track.
In the terrifying moments that followed, he was hit by one of the oncoming bikes as he spun on the ground – but thankfully the impact from Binder’s KTM RC16 was to his legs.
Bagnaia remained at the site of the crash and had to be taken to the medical centre by ambulance, before being eventually forwarded to a Barcelona hospital.
It was quickly reported by Spanish media that he had avoided significant injury. An update from MotoGP medical director Dr Angel Charte to Spanish broadcaster DAZN said a “small injury” had been detected and an “urgent CAT scan” was required to find out more about it – including whether it was actually an old one.
Ducati later announced that it appeared Bagnaia had only suffered “contusions” in the crash.
Binder himself crashed after the Bagnaia impact, with “something from his motorbike stuck in the intercooler” of his KTM.
“I saw nothing,” he said of Bagnaia’s original crash. “By the time I saw something, it was the motorbike and him. And it was Miguel [Oliveira] and I think Maverick [Vinales], I was in the centre of these two. Not fun.
“Thank goodness I saw him move a little [afterwards].”
Binder took the restart but retired soon with a mechanical issue, which did give him the opportunity to visit Bagnaia in the medical centre.
“The trickiest part is to just get back on and carry on. The good thing is I saw him move, and I knew I’d just clipped his leg. Or legs. I don’t quite know.
“But I knew I got over enough to make sure at least I never hit him square.
“But at the end of the day it’s every rider’s worst nightmare – to see someone there is scary, but to be the one who hits them is even more s**t, to be honest.
“I’m just really glad that, OK, I don’t know if he’s OK-OK, but he’s fine – you know what I mean? I went to see him at the medical centre, and he seemed 100%, I just don’t know if he maybe has something with his leg or legs.
“Honestly, when I walked in there, I wasn’t expecting to see him chilling. I must be quite honest. And he seemed OK.”
Asked about the frustration of his own DNF, Binder said: “My only priority today is that I never hurt anybody – well, of course I hurt him, but not hurt-hurt. And it is what it is.”
Bagnaia’s Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini, who had spent so much of the season sidelined through injury and was the culprit in a first-corner pile-up moments before Bagnaia’s crash, is actually worse off, having suffered ankle and hand fractures.
