In total, 15 riders of the 25 starters suffered falls across the 12-lap sprint, with 10 of those tumbles occurring in about 10 minutes between lap seven and the end.
At Turn 5, Vinales fell on lap 10 having inherited third when Alex Marquez, Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini all had identical front-end crashes the tour before.
Moments after they did this, Marc Marquez crashed out of the lead at Turn 9, while Luca Marini, Stefan Bradl, Johann Zarco and Marco Bezzecchi slid off soon after.
The race was not stopped despite the sudden spate of falls, with Pramac’s Jorge Martin going on to win from Pedro Acosta and Fabio Quartararo before the latter was hit with a tyre pressure penalty.
Most riders noted that there were damp patches in several key places, with Vinales commenting that the one he crashed on at Turn 5 was impossible to see.
Asked about what happened, the Aprilia rider felt the race should have been stopped as so the circuit could be inspected.
“At the end it [the track] was 95% dry and the 5% that was wet was completely in the middle of the line,” he said.
“And especially at Turn 5 you could not see with your eyes that it was wet. For example, on the warm-up lap I passed Turn 5 and I just looked back to see where was wet and all the corner looked dry.
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing crash
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“So, was impossible to see. Also, last corner it was impossible to see [the damp patches].
“After the crash of Binder and all the guys, I think race direction should understand that the track was not rideable for these kinds of bikes.
“I just passed maybe on the same line and then I crashed without any warning. So, we need to really be careful when the track is on these conditions because it’s so easy to make a big crash.”
He added: “I don’t think it’s about luck. It’s about the track, the conditions of the track.
“For sure if I’m in a test I don’t go out with these conditions. I wait till it’s dry.
“Obviously, it was completely in the middle of the line, so that’s why I say race direction should understand that if we are 20 [riders] – or something like that – and 14 riders crash, it’s because of something.
“Put a red flag and check the conditions.”
Vinales also noted that riders have been asking for ways to be able to communicate from the bike to race direction to signal if there is a problem on track for it to investigate, but nothing has come of that so far.
Alex Marquez noted…
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