The explanations of Bastianini, Biaggi, Acosta, Pasini, the trackside testimony of former rider Fabio Barchitta, the warning of Vinales, the confirmation of one of our testers
April 28, 2024
Land 15 crashes yesterday in the Saturday Sprint was quite an exceptional event. Six riders managed to restart and finish the race: Marc Marquez, who crashed when he was first, finished seventh. Here are all the details on falls and placings.
But in this article we want to talk about falls he was born in why they happenedwhat are the characteristics of the track Jerez which leads to the formation of damp patches on asphalt though it’s sunny.
To do this, let’s get those who know the track well to talk.
Bastianini
Ptalking to Sky Enea explained: “Here in Jerez they are created some stains on the ground. It felt like I was taking the same line as the lap before, but when I saw the blob it was too much late. Watching Moto2 is useful, but the track was constantly changing because here in Jerez the water rises from the asphalt: trivially, at the end of the race there were some spots that they weren’t there at first“.
Acosta
Peddro Acosta, a Sky he said: “At turns 5, 8, 9 there was a bit of humidity; at the last two you could clearly see it. It was difficult to understand how to move without falling”.
Barchitta’s videos with the marshals drying the track
Fabio Barchitta he is a former pilot who runs a marketing agency. We talked about him in this article. Yesterday he was in Jerez and posted what you can read below:
“During today’s MotoGP sprint race, I had the opportunity to be on the service road of the curve 5, a critical point of the event. I have observed several falls of pilots, caused by some wet patches surprisingly insidious. Although the race direction had initially exposed a warning for slippery slopethis was removed after the first laps, not assuming the problem will be resolved, but to give the stewards the opportunity to explain it.
Again in case of a new and different Problem. However, in conversation with the track marshals, I discovered that the accumulated water on an adjacent hill it went up through the ground onto the asphaltcreating unpredictable conditions for the drivers, who were surprised by a different stretch of track on each lap.
This anomaly was not foreseeable during the pre-race check, and the stewards’ attempt to dry the asphalt at the end of the race raised a lot of water, indicating that the problem persisted. I think that a half-hour postponement of the match it would not have solved the situation, but rather would have created complications for television slots. A truly unusual and unfortunate phenomenon, which put the drivers and the organization to the test.”
Biaggi
Max Biaggi: “The simultaneous fall (Binder, Alex Marquez and Bastianini) will have been a wet asphalt strip, the humidity remains in the grain of the asphalt, you drive over it ten times and once or twice it goes wrong. If the first one makes a mistake, the others follow him and make the same mistake.”
Martin helped by Pasini
Martin explained to Sky how he managed to avoid the damp patches, something Marc Marquez was unable to do: “Do you know what I saw? I saw the Paso who did the study with Joe Roberts (Moto2, ed.), and there were two patches, one on the start and one that was unseen, so thanks to Paso who made me win today.
Viñales
THEthe Aprilia rider a Sky had his say: “In my opinion today’s theme was the condition of the track, which it really was very bad: they kept making us run while we fell like bowling. I don’t understand how can make us run with a track so wet: the conditions were not there, we all fell with nothing. We pilots should reach a better agreement, nothing happens if we wait half an hour and we run on drier asphalt”
The testimony of a Moto.it tester
“I tested in Jerez a month ago, there were patches of light dampness in several places, the circuit managers explained to us where the patches were and what they depended on (rising humidity) and how to avoid them”.
Marquez’s fall
