Le Mans MotoGP sprint's weird crashes and collapses explained

From a title contender shunting after just one lap, to a top-five runner crashing at the very last corner, to a first-time podium finisher running into the winner in the pit entry on the slowing-down lap, the sprint at MotoGP's French Grand Prix had far more than its fair share of weird incidents.

Bagnaia's early tumble

Pecco Bagnaia felt he had the potential to compete for a top-two spot in the sprint, but was caught out by the same lack of front confidence that he'd lamented on Friday - and also for the much of the season prior.

"Unluckily this season I don't have the feeling that I want - like I am repeating from the start - and these crashes can happen," said Bagnaia, who crashed on the second lap in the left-hander part of the Dunlop chicane not long after consolidating fourth place.

"Honestly, looking from the data, I was a bit slower with less lean angle [than usual] but I still lost the front. I don't have the feeling to do what I want.

"The thing is that Turn 3 [the left-hander in the Dunlop chicane] was always a weak point for me in the past. This season I'm stronger on left corners, by some miracle, because I'm working in a different way in left corners and it's working well - but I'm not feeling the front of the bike this season, in general.

"So entering there... honestly this lap I was with less lean angle [than earlier this weekend]. But compared to last year I was with more lean angle. Maybe this is the only reason why."

Bagnaia reiterated that it was part of a wider tendency to "feel that the front can leave me in a moment" in braking zones.

"I just need to do something. Tonight, after the interviews, I will go directly to the box to analyse and try to solve the problems or to try a solution for tomorrow and see what we can do."

Acosta's last-gasp blunder

Pedro Acosta rapidly advanced from 12th on the grid to what was going to be fifth in the race, only to slide wide then down at the penultimate corner of the race. He remounted to cross the line in 19th - and wasn't keen to discuss it.

"I will not talk about the end because I think that we need to focus on the small little good things of life and today the pace was good, the overtakes were good, the start was good and the general race was good," said Acosta.

Asked if perhaps fatigue had crept in after his recent arm pump surgery, Acosta replied with a lot of quick-fire uses of the word "no" and insisted fitness-wise he was "super-fine" bar a "pulling" sensation from the stitches that was "not the greatest feeling in the world" but not constant.

He did also admit to Spanish media in the end that one factor in the crash was him thinking Maverick Vinales was closer in the fight for fifth - unaware that his KTM stablemate had made a meal out of Chemin aux Boeufs earlier in the lap and was no longer a threat.

Aldeguer's messy celebration

Rookie Fermin Aldeguer's hard-fought first podium finish in a MotoGP race was earned through a shoulder-barging fight with Fabio Quartararo, and despite crashing in qualifying just after setting the lap that put him fourth on the grid.

Then as he and fellow podium finishers Alex and Marc Marquez trundled into the pitlane at the end of the race, Aldeguer was caught out by Marc braking while he seemed more focused on waving to the crowd. He bumped into the back of Marquez's Ducati and had a comedy low-speed fall off his virtually-static bike.

"He braked, I pushed him, I crashed. We also enjoyed this moment," was Aldeguer's description.

It also earned him a fond slap on the back of the head from Marc in parc ferme. And that piece of inconsequential clumsiness from Aldeguer was a total contrast to his fast, aggressive and assured breakthrough race performance.

Morbidelli in reverse

VR46 Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli got his strangest incident of what he admitted was a "sketchy" day out of the way in the pre-qualifying practice session in the morning, when he fell on a dusty access road while trying to rejoin from a trip through the gravel.

Another - less strange - crash at the end of Q2 left him ninth on the grid, but that immediately turned to 19th at the start.

"I couldn’t engage the front start device," Morbidelli explained.

"Then when I finally did it was too late. So I just decided to leave the starting line and not be aggressive for the start because I wasn’t in the right position, I wasn’t feeling ready to start. So I just decided to release the clutch and gently go, so I lost many positions.

"And then I thought I could catch up anyway and I couldn’t, I didn’t have the grip I was expecting."

What he called a 13-lap practice run followed as Morbidelli finished a distant 15th.

Binder's surprise 'flick'

Brad Binder, who has scored two points across the five previous sprints this season, looked set to at least double that tally as he latched on to the back of his KTM stablemates Pedro Acosta and Maverick Vinales.

But his RC16 went out of control once the rear stepped out braking into Chemin aux Boeufs, ending his top-five challenge then and there.

Binder revealed afterwards it was actually the front of the bike that was the catalyst for the crash - which he was fortunate not to have devolve into a bigger, more painful highside.

"It was probably the weirdest crash I’ve ever had," he said. "I locked the front wheel as soon as I pulled the front brake. Normally it just locks and comes straight again, but it kind of locked and stayed closed.

"And then I was just trying to get it to come up and then the rear stepped out and just gave me a little flick.

"A bit unfortunate because everything was pretty good up to that point. I felt good and up to the fight so let’s see, tomorrow’s another day."

Bezzecchi's deja vu

For the second race in a row, an early "shake" under braking led to Marco Bezzecchi ploughing through a gravel trap and from a strong position to the back of the pack.

The Aprilia rider - who'd started seventh - was running fifth when he went off at Garage Vert on the third lap.

"Like in Jerez, I had a massive shake in the braking of Turn 8 and I again went in the gravel and I again lost the race," said Bezzecchi, who eventually finished 17th.

"We have to analyse the data, try to understand if I can do something different while I’m riding, try to avoid this kind of movement from the bike.

"The problem comes more when I’m in the slipstream of someone else because when I’m alone I stress the bike less in braking. But when I am in slipstream I have to force more on the brake to stop in the same way and then the bike starts to move."

Oliveira's (not so) unhappy return

Miguel Oliveira is physically recovered but not race fit at all after his long injury absence, so feels the weekend has aready gone better than expected in him being able to keep up pace.

But while points were always going to be almost impossible in the sprint, they were rendered even more impossible by him going off and skipping through the gravel at Garage Vert - like Bezzecchi - on the eighth lap, rejoining the race a lonely 20th.

"What happened [was], I ran out of- not 'talent'...maybe 'talent' a little bit," chuckled Oliveira.

"For sure I wanted to brake a little bit later there, in Turn 8, I got the rear lifted a little bit too much, it kind of tank-slapped me a little bit so went straight. Lost a lot of time there, 20-something seconds just on that lap.

"But honestly my expectation was to come here and do a couple of laps, not feeling amazing, not being able to ride, but honestly everything is getting into place, I'm happy about that."