Why wasn't the red flag shown?

Twenty minutes to go. I’m practically alone in the press room of the Motorland Aragón circuit. In the background I can hear the crowd celebrating the podium of the Moto2 category that has just ended, and the hoarse sound of some Moto3 bikes already running, waiting for their riders to get on them and head to the grid. I finish downloading the photos of the intermediate category race to my computer and head to the pit lane.

I stop at the Catalunya-Caixa Repsol garage. Its four bikes lined up together, almost in a row, deserve a photo. Now to the grid. I wait a little and the riders start to arrive. Juanfran Guevara, Alex Márquez and Luca Amato are on the front row. I take a few photos of them. I go down to the fourth row. They announce that the bikes leave in 5 minutes. The grid must be cleared.

I go for the scooter that the people from O2 Honda Madrid have lent me for this race. I take the outer road and position myself at the end of the straight, at the first corner. I hear the engines roaring; it’s the formation lap. I change the lens and wait for the race to start. I chat with a colleague standing next to me. Come on, here they come!!

At the apex of the corner Juanfran Guevara appears, leading the pack of riders. The camera keeps firing, and suddenly I see a pink helmet rising above the rest. I focus there and keep shooting. One, two, three… four bikes. A typical first-corner pile-up. I recognise María Herrera and think about how unlucky she has been, again without points. I zoom out and see a rider on the ground. Motionless. Curled up.

My heart starts racing, while I think many things. The marshals running over there. I focus to see if I can tell who it is; I see the pink helmet and make out the number 46 on the bike. It’s Yui Watanabe, the Japanese rider who also competes in the Red Bull Rookies Cup. She is unconscious on the edge of the track. The ambulance arrives. Red flag, I think. But no. The riders take the second lap while, in the middle of the run-off area, they are attending to Yui, with a small barrier in front of her and the ambulance right beside her.

What if at that moment someone runs wide? What if another crash happens? The fall of four 4-stroke bikes could have left oil on the track. A large group of riders is still on the second lap, and although they see the yellow flag at the end of the straight, they may touch each other and crash towards a run-off area that is occupied by an injured rider, a group of doctors and an ambulance.

From where I was I didn’t see white flags at the marshal post before the corner, only two yellow flags waving. I asked the marshals why the race wasn’t stopped. “As long as race direction doesn’t say anything, we don’t show the red flag”. Curious, but they’re right. They only do what they’re told. But the situation was too dangerous to continue the race.

I left the corner while Yui was being lifted into the ambulance. I continued along the outer road, stopping to take a few more photos. Before returning to the paddock I stopped at the post where the marshals who had attended her were. They confirmed that she passed out from the impact and that in the ambulance she started talking to them. “Probably a broken collarbone”, one of the doctors told me. A little more relieved, I returned to the press room to watch the end of the Moto3 race.

Photos | David Gómez (Plusmoto)