Misano's Miserable Surface
A
fter a rash of crashes and
injuries, a special surface
treatment intended to provide bet-
ter wet grip had left the Misano
circuit so slippery that there was
a rash of crashes and injuries
in MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3
practice, with at least one rider
dubbing the track "dangerous."
That was first-time Moto2 pole
qualifier Fabio Di Giannantonio,
who had seen two others in the
class eliminated from the race
with injuries. Erstwhile title con-
tender Marcel Schrotter crashed
on Saturday morning and suf-
fered a quadruple fracture to his
collarbone, while Mattia Pasini
was also stretchered away with a
fractured vertebra after a heavy
high-side—one of a number over
the two days in all classes.
There was a grand total of
83 crashes over the weekend,
compared with 75 last year (and
a record 140 in the rain in 2017),
but many of them were highsides,
leaving riders injured.
In MotoGP, where Marquez
was among several to fall, Andrea
Iannone (Aprilia) had three falls
over the two days, putting him out
of his home GP.
Moto3 star Romano Fenati
was another victim, crashing in
Q1 and again in Q2, the sec-
ond time breaking his scaphoid
bone, and is likely to be out for
at least two races. On Friday,
Can Oncu broke his collarbone
in a highside.
Another severely injured
rider was Niki Tuuli in Saturday's
MotoE race. He was flown to the
hospital with a broken left femur
and left wrist.
Another Moto2 star, Brad
Binder, said, "it is like riding in the
wet, especially in Moto2, with this
year's hard tires."
The reason was the micro-
blasting, which increased micro-
roughness and improved wet
grip, but in the dry made it "like a
brand-new track," he continued.
Michelin used the same pro-
cess at their proving ground, and
the situation would persist for the
first five, six or seven months.
Michael Scott
IN
THE
WIND
P60
Several Moto3 riders
suffered huge crashes
at Misano, like Celestino
Vietti and Niccolo
Antonelli here.
