Johann Zarco Thanks Pecco Bagnaia for 'Humanity' After Horrific Catalunya Incident

Pulse Sports Team 09:37 - 29 August 2026

A video posted by LCR Honda showed Johann Zarco thanking Pecco Bagnaia “for showing humanity” towards him after his horrific crash in Barcelona.

The Frenchman was involved in a collision with Honda's Luca Marini and Ducati's Pecco Bagnaia at the first corner during the Catalan Grand Prix in May. The LCR rider's leg became trapped in Bagnaia's Ducati as the two slid through the gravel off the track.

Both Bagnaia and Marini immediately rushed to Zarco's aid while awaiting the arrival of the medical team at the scene of the incident. Miraculously, Zarco avoided serious injury and did not require surgery, despite being out of action for over 100 days.

He returns this weekend for the Aragon Grand Prix, impressing on Friday by being the only Honda rider in the top 10 after practice. In a video posted by the LCR team on social media, Zarco expressed his gratitude to Bagnaia.

"I wanted to see you to thank you for showing such humanity in the gravel at Catalunya," he said. "Everything is fine. It's not much bigger. I put some ice on it. And thanks to that wound, I managed to avoid [surgery]. I had to wait for surgery because there was a risk of infection. And after a month and a half, we saw that maybe we could avoid [surgery]."

MotoGP stewards deemed Zarco at fault for the incident and handed him a double long lap penalty for the Aragon Grand Prix.

Speaking about his return on Friday, Zarco shared: "Regarding the leg, there's no pain, but the muscles needed a bit of time to get used to the position again. I immediately got some slight cramps, which I took care of after the session. Tonight, I'll get another good leg massage to relax them a bit, because cramps can be an issue. But this afternoon, the pace was immediately faster and more intense, and we were back in the sport! I told myself, 'Wow, this is intense!' On the first fast lap, I was with Alex Marquez, so a perfect rider to follow, but I wasn't fast enough and thought it would be a problem to get into the top ten."