Honda rider Marc Marquez and Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo disagree on the first-lap pile-up in Barcelona

Honda rider Marc Marquez and Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo have disagreed on the first-lap pile-up caused by Enea Bastianini in Barcelona. During the start of the Catalan GP, Bastianini was too aggressive going into the first turn. The rider missed his braking point and clattered into Johan Zarco, starting a chain reaction of bikes crashing into each other.

The accident in the first corner left Enea Bastianini injured and he needed medical attention and will undergo surgery, thus missing multiple races. When it came to the crash and handing out their verdict on it, Honda rider Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo differed on what they thought could have avoided the incident.

While Fabio Quartararo suggested that maybe the distance between the starting line and the first turn needs to be shortened, Marc Marquez felt it came down to the rider. He gave the example of the race in Austria where the starting line was closer to turn 1 and still we had an incident. As quoted by Motorsport.com, the Spaniard said,

"Just the riders need to be more careful. If you see the second start everybody was more careful, because everyone saw what happened and everybody was more careful. It doesn't matter that it [Turn 1] is too close; it's too close in Austria and we saw what happened, a big crash."

He added,

"In the end, it's the riders who need to decide and understand you cannot brake [where you want]. Enea he took experience from it, but he's not crazy. He's not going over his limits, but sometimes it happens. They are super-fast bikes, sometimes it happens and it's not necessary to push this point."

Contrary to what Marc Marquez claims, Fabio Quartararo feels otherwise

Contrary to what Marc Marquez claims about the distance to the starting line, Fabio Quartararo felt otherwise, as he specifically talked about the fact that the bikes reach speeds in excess of 300kph before braking into turn 1. He said,

"I mean, we arrive pretty fast and every lap when we arrive, we know the braking reference is there. But actually we never really [practice the] start and we arrive close to 300km/h. To find a good braking reference it's complicated. [In the sprint] I was lucky not to hit anyone because I braked too late, hit a little bit of dust and went wide."

He added,

"And I think it's what happened to Enea. But he was already on the inside, he braked and the rear was going up. He was on the limit but I think it's not a bad idea."

The crashes in MotoGP have continued to increase this season and so has their severity and the riders might need to sit down and reach a consensus in order to find a solution.