Photo: Weibo

Chinese singer and actor Wang Yibo attended a motorcycle race held in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday, but lost his chance of getting the trophy after an accident. 

A video clip from a rebroadcast of the final lap of the Zhuhai ZIC motorcycle race shows competitor Hu Tongming falling from his bike while trying to make an inside pass past Wang as the two go into a corner. Hu's bike then hits into Wang's, causing its rider to go stumbling across the ground.

Although Wang, who had been in second place, tried to return to the field, he was unable to finish the race as his motorcycle failed to restart.

The hashtag "Wang Yibo falls down" quickly raced to the top of the Sina Weibo hot search chart, receiving more than 2.2 billion views as of Thursday afternoon.

Many of Wang's fans and netizens questioned whether Hu deliberately caused Wang to fall in order to prevent him from winning the race. 

"He just likes riding motorcycles and wants to compete in a competition through his own efforts. Why are they taking aim at him and trying to harm him," a Wang fan surnamed Feng, who went to Zhuhai to watch her idol take part in the race, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Some fans posted screenshots of what they claim are chat records showing Hu and his friends taking pleasure in Wang's misfortune, while others posted short videos showing people applauding at the accident. 

"Hu's teammates clapped their hands when seeing Wang having to give up the race, and I could hear some staff members applauding out of the field of view. What do they mean? I don't ask for them to be sad about Yibo, but why are they so happy? Is this the real spirit of sports?" one netizen commented on Sina Weibo.

It was later found that one of the people who applauded was a staff member who works for Ducati, an Italian motorcycle brand, which led to some netizens to call for a boycott of the brand.

Ducati has published two statements on Sina Weibo and on its official WeChat account saying the company rejects unfair incidents in any race and that the employee was just a temporary worker. It added that the company will regulate the behavior of all employees.

But fans seem not to buy these statements - "Your sports spirit does not deserve to attend any race."

There are different voices on social media platforms about whether Hu caused Wang to fall on purpose. Some netizens claiming to be professional motorcyclists condemned Wang's fans, saying they are unaware of the truth.

"I watched the video several times and do not think Hu did it on purpose. He just fell down by accident. Wang's skill is not enough to deal with the accident so he was tripped up. Wang's fans should stop abusing other competitors," another netizen wrote.

Fans do not agree with the voice. 

"We ask for respect and equal treatment toward Yibo. They cannot ignore his efforts because he is a pop star. We call for equal and friendly sports spirit and apparently, Yibo has not been treated with that spirit," another fan surnamed Wan in Beijing said.

Wang later issued a statement on Sina Weibo after the contest calling on his fans to calm down. 

"Falling down is unfortunate, but every athlete should face failure. If you lose the spirit of sports, that is wrong."

Additionally, an official arbitration was published on Wednesday stating that the incident has been judged an accident and that all scores remain in effect.