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Of the trio, Fernandes – a rider in his third year in the MotoGP World Championship who has never finished a sprint higher than ninth – was the most clear about exactly what went wrong and the most clear about it being his fault.

After being seen distressed in the gravel in the moments following his crash, Fernandes admitted he was “crying like a baby” following his arrival at his pit garage.

“Honestly, I want to say sorry to the team,” he said.

“I made a very stupid mistake. I felt super comfortable today, and I felt like everything was under control.”

The accident occurred under heavy braking at Turn 10, and Fernandez took it as a result of him trying to “make up” for lost time at the previous turn.

He came in, felt like he was going too far but tried to turn the corner anyway – and fell.

“It was 100% my fault. Maybe at that moment, just at that moment, the ambition was too much because I didn’t want to lose too much time.

“But that’s part of the game.”

Despite his crash, Fernandes – aboard the 2023 Aprilia that won here last year, but generally looked a step behind the newer version in 2024 – took plenty of encouragement from his performance, which he said was motivated by the Aprilia-assisted change to the electronics setup after Friday.

He also noted that the race has attracted the likes of Bagnaia and Bender.

“It’s not an excuse, but it’s reality, real life. It’s a tough class, and it’s not an easy one. But I think we’re on a good path.”

Binder regrets ‘trying to ride clean’

Binder’s exit from the top spot means he has not scored any points in a sprint since the opener in Qatar, in a season in which he has so far repeatedly handicapped himself with ill-timed crashes.

“That’s the thing, I sat down earlier and I was thinking about it and I said to myself, ‘Why can’t I keep going?’” he said.

“The truth is, when I went down today, I felt like I was very calm and not trying to do anything crazy, just trying to have my own race.

“More than anything, I didn’t have it all together. I feel like I just need to drop the coin and we’ll be fine.”

The performance was clear, and like Fernandez, Bender hinted that he wasn’t necessarily trying to catch a break when he “messed up.”

“I just washed out the front, didn’t really get any warning, maybe just a little bit straighter than the previous lap.

“I was trying to drive clean. And I probably shouldn’t have done that. Because it seemed like I was backing her up.” [sliding] Much less than I usually do. Obviously that puts the weight a little bit in a different place, and I just washed the front off.”

The accident occurred at Turn 5, where Bender “didn’t have a single moment all weekend”.

“It’s obviously one of those angles… everyone knows it’s a bit sketchy.”

“It’s a little downhill, almost a little off camber when you’re trying to get back.”

Bagnaia is disturbed by the level of grip

Five laps after Binder, Bagnaia – who made clear on Friday that he saw the track as badly in need of a resurfacing – also experienced just how “sketchy” Turn Five was.

“I waited a lot, the bike waited in the box, and I stayed in the box for one hour to analyze everything. Because… when you can’t properly understand why you crashed, it’s better to analyze everything,” he said.

“And it looks like he’s coming in [the corner] Slower, same brakes [pressure], makes you crash. Normally, in a normal condition, this could not happen – but here the grip level is catastrophic, [so] might happen.”

Bagnaia said he was “cruising”, maintaining plenty of tire life and a significant late-race speed advantage over his direct rivals – and rejected the suggestion it was a matter of lack of concentration.

“I was 100% focused. I know how to win. And this was the win I got – because I was controlling everything perfectly, I was using a lot of tires, and I was very fast.

“So I was doing everything perfectly. And it’s very strange, when you look at my data, and you see the moment of the accident, it’s really strange to see an accident in that kind of situation.”

“But it was really strange today that all the riders who were in front crashed.”

He described it as “another great missed opportunity” for himself, and insisted that Sunday’s Grand Prix would first and foremost be a must-do – as Barcelona also bit him last year, with Sunday’s high side causing it to go badly (so far). Fairly lucky) A leg injury nearly put his title in jeopardy.