MotoGP great Valentino Rossi has called on riders to stop their reckless behaviour at such high speeds after crashes marred the weekend of racing in Austria.

The 41-year-old was almost hit on the helmet by the bike of Franco Morbidelli after his fellow Italian had been wiped out by France’s Johann Zarco during the Austrian Grand Prix.

The red flag came out early in the race when Morbidelli’s Yamaha collided with the Avintia Ducati of Zarco, with their cartwheeling bikes nearly taking out Rossi at turn three of the Red Bull Ring.

The two bikes missed Rossi and teammate Maverick Vinales by inches as they slowed to negotiate the turn.

Rossi looked visibly shaken when he returned to the garage before the race’s restart.

“It was very, very scary,” Rossi, a winner of nine world titles across classes, said.

“It is good to be aggressive…but we don’t have to exaggerate because we need to remember this sport is very dangerous and you need to have respect for your rivals especially on a track where you go always 300km/h…

“It’s important to improve the behaviour of the riders in the future.”

In the Moto 2 race at Spielberg, Hafizh Syahrin of Malaysia needed hospital treatment after another bad crash.