IN
THE
WIND
P40
RIDERS TALK SAFETY POST-MOTEGI
S
afety was in the
spotlight in the
week after the Japa-
nese GP, with riders
concerned about the
close barriers and po-
tential dangers of the
Honda-owned Motegi
circuit.
The track's dan-
gers were high on the
agenda of the Safety
Commission meet-
ing held every race,
revealed regular del-
egate Valentino Rossi,
even as increasingly
encouraging news
about the critically
injured Alex de Angelis
filtered in.
But the crash that left the
accident-prone San Marino rider
(19 recorded so far this year)
had been something of a freak,
he pointed out, with de Angelis
exiting the circuit out of control
on the inside rather than the
outside of a corner, which is the
more usual outcome.
And fellow commission mem-
ber Andrea Dovizioso acknowl-
edged that "in our sport, it will
never be possible to make every
track completely safe… you
would need four times the area
of every circuit."
De Angelis crashed in Free
Practice Four, bringing out red
flags for 20 minutes as he was
stabilized at the track. He was
reported "conscious and mov-
ing his limbs," but was trans-
ferred to hospital by helicopter
in "critical" condition.
As Rossi described, he had
run off on the inside rather than
the outside of the circuit on the
exit of Turn Nine, where barri-
ers run close alongside a short
straight.
"The accident was very bad.
He crashed in a place that is
very difficult to expect. He got
on the inside of the exit from the
corner. Always we concentrate
on the outside. But with these
bikes and this amount of power
it is difficult to understand where
the bike wants to go.
"Normally Motegi is quite
safe, but we have some points
that can be dangerous," he
added, pointing out that Pol Es-
pargaro had a lucky escape fall-
ing at another point where the
guardrail is close to the track.
De Angelis's major injuries
were spinal damage, lung
contusion, and in a subsequent
diagnosis, also bleeding on the
brain. Each of these carries
very serious implications; but
day by day reports of improve-
ment reached the track, with the
announcement on Saturday that
he had been pronounced well
enough to fly back to Italy to
continue his recovery. CN
Valentino Rossi and the MotoGP
safety commission are talking about
safety issues following Alex de
Angelis' horrific crash in Japan.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
