Motorcycle racing often sees some scary crashes, such as half of the field wiping out at the French Grand Prix of Le Mans last month, and Saturday’s qualifying for the Moto2 Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, Netherlands saw two separate frightening crashes. First, Lorenzo Baldassarri’s bike swerved out of control as he caught the side of the track, causing him to pop up in the air, go down hard on his face, and skid along the road next to his bike before sliding off onto the shoulder:
Yikes. That’s scary stuff, especially with the bike being so close to him and with him sliding along the track and banging his head on the surface. The crash (pictured above) caused a red flag and a stop in qualifying, and Baldassarri was taken to the hospital for a CT scan. Fortunately, he tweeted from there that he’s feeling “almost like new” and will “try to come back ASAP.”
Praticamente come nuovo #DutchGP #IronBalda pic.twitter.com/blWxPmKxrw
— Lorenzo Baldassarri (@7balda) June 24, 2017
Thanks all of you guys for the support. I'll try to come back ASAP. Big thanks to the doctors, @ForwardRacingGP and @VRRidersAcademy pic.twitter.com/Ksrd3Nlubl
— Lorenzo Baldassarri (@7balda) June 24, 2017
#IronBalda indeed. This wasn’t the only bad crash, though. Francesco Bagnaia also had a bad one:
And Sandro Cortese suffered another one:
One of the bigger crashes we've had…
Sandro Cortese has a huge high side in #Moto2 qualifying. #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/BGVFpCpqnR
— MotoGP on TNT Sports (@motogpontnt) June 24, 2017
Bagnaia was able to continue the race, though, and Cortese later tweeted that he was fine, and grateful that he was able to walk away:
After the nasty crash today,I'm just happy I could walk away without any injury.
Tomorrow's race will be hard,but… https://t.co/1vbX41uker— Sandro Cortese (@Sandrissimo11) June 24, 2017
It’s fortunate that none of these riders were seriously injured, as all of these crashes looked pretty bad.
[Deadspin]
