A run of frightening first-corner crashes has MotoGP weighing a ban on the front holeshot device, possibly as soon as Silverstone. At Brno on Thursday, the championship's leading riders made clear they are not convinced the device is the problem.
The latest pile-up came at Balaton Park, where Jorge Martin lost the front under braking for Turn 1 and collected his Aprilia team-mate and points leader Marco Bezzecchi — the second major start-line accident in a handful of rounds after Johann Zarco's heavy crash at Barcelona. With officials already fast-tracking a ban on rear ride-height devices, attention has turned to the front holeshot device.
Bezzecchi, on the floor through no fault of his own at Balaton, was unmoved. "The front device is not the problem," he said, arguing that "something extra" was behind the recent spate of crashes rather than the start aids themselves.
Marquez — the only one of the three who raced in the era before holeshot and ride-height devices — offered the most detailed defence. He argued the real culprit is the number of standing starts on a packed modern grid. By Sunday's race, he pointed out, riders are arriving at Turn 1 for the fourth start of the weekend, after two in practice and the sprint. "You already have your braking mark on the limit," Marquez said. "A small mistake from the riders behind makes the front riders brake on the limit." The first corner, he added, "is always the most dangerous point, and the problem is that now we have so many starts, so the statistics are higher."
He also defended the rear ride-height device on safety grounds: "With the rear device the exit of the corner is easier and the bike is shaking less, so it's more stable. In some parts it's safer." All three contenders agreed the proposal should be trialled before any verdict, and none believed the Balaton crash was caused by the devices.
The debate plays out against a championship that has swung on exactly these accidents. Bezzecchi leads by 20 points with four Grand Prix wins; Pedro Acosta is fourth, 48 points back and making his 50th MotoGP start this weekend; and reigning champion Marquez — who missed the start of the season after shoulder surgery — sits 72 points adrift despite a perfect weekend in Hungary, where he swept the sprint and Grand Prix for the 100th win of his Grand Prix career.
Marquez said he is still rebuilding. He took "a big impact, especially on the right side of my body" in the Balaton tangle but recovered fast: "after three or four days the pain was almost completely gone." More significant, he said, is that his surgically repaired arm now behaves differently. "My arm is working in a different way, so now I need to readjust everything," he said. His confidence is mental as much as physical. Asked if he was stronger than ever, he replied: "Yes — because if not, I give up. So I need to be strong. All difficult moments make you not better, but stronger."
Bezzecchi expects Brno — fast and flowing like Mugello, where he was recently strong — to suit him. "This track is super fun to ride. We can express the power of the bike completely," he said, recalling last year's duel here. "We made a very good race with Mark, with Pedro. Hopefully we can have another good battle."
Acosta, who has collected four podiums in an up-and-down season, played down KTM's title hopes. "At the moment we are still quite far," he said. "It's quite difficult to recover points if your maximum can be second or third." He pointed to Ducati's strength — "Ducati is stronger than us, always" — and, asked about Monday's first test of the 2027 850cc machinery, shrugged off the secrecy. "You know more than me, because they don't tell me anything," he said. "If they want me to put the suit on, I'll put it on and go there."
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/marquez-and-bezzecchi-resist-motogp-start-device-ban-at-brno). Visit for full coverage.*