Alex Rins has revealed that fans sent him threats of violence and death after his incident with marshals at the Indonesian Grand Prix. The Yamaha rider was filmed in a heated exchange with marshals at the end of Friday practice, following his crash. The confrontation began with confusion over how he would leave the circuit and return to the paddock.

Rins said he thought one marshal was telling him to get on his scooter so he could be taken back to the paddock, but later realised that this was not going to happen. The exchange escalated when he showed the marshal the middle finger. The stewards subsequently spoke to him and, Rins said, appeared surprised when he explained what had happened. On Saturday afternoon, he used Twitter to apologise publicly, accepting that his reaction had been wrong and stressing his respect for marshals and the work they do.

Rins also drew a firm line between criticism and abuse. He said he understood why people were upset by the gesture, but insisted that threats and abusive messages were never acceptable. MotoGP had not issued an official comment on the messages directed at him at the time of publication. The case is part of a wider pattern around motorsport. Formula 1-related examples mentioned in the same context involve Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman. Gasly said his family and girlfriend received death threats after an incident at the Spanish Grand Prix. In MotoGP, Marc Marquez previously asked his fans to stop abusing Marco Bezzecchi after a collision that injured Marquez. Championships have few effective options beyond blocking accounts from following certain pages, underlining the difficulty of dealing with coordinated online abuse.