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MotoGP officials have 'no explanation' for Luis Salom's fatal crash

There is currently "no explanation" for the accident that claimed Moto2 rider Luis Salom's life at Barcelona, the CEO of MotoGP promoter Dorna Carmelo Ezpeleta says

Salom crashed at Turn 12 during Friday afternoon's second Moto2 practice session and later lost his life at Hospital General de Catalunya.

Medical team describes efforts to save Salom

The right-hand corner does not have gravel traps, with asphalt leading to MotoGP's air fences.

In a media briefing alongside FIM safety delegate Franco Uncini on Saturday, Ezpeleta said Turn 12 or its run-off area had not been raised as a concern by riders before.

Noting "this is not the place to have this kind of accident", he said the crash was unusual.

"It's important to say that today we don't have an explanation about the accident," Ezpeleta said.

"Where Luis fell on the bike is absolutely out of the line, something happened and we are studying that, the bike with the telemetry, but today there is no explanation.

"I was [later] in the place where there was this impact with the fence and this line, with the marks of the tyres that are there, is absolutely outside of where you need to take the corner.

"He was not pushing a lot, something happened, we don't know exactly, and it's for that that we want to study.

"We want to understand exactly what happened, we need to reflect and make it safer."

Uncini outlined that it appeared Salom was hit by his Kalex when it rebounded off of the air fence.

Following a meeting of MotoGP's safety commission attended by 10 riders, a decision was taken to switch to the Circuit de Catalunya layout used by Formula 1.

That configuration does not include Turn 12, instead going through a chicane complex, while the profile of Turn 10 is also different.

It was trialled during a test post-race test in 2014, and following further rider feedback on Friday evening several modifications were made, primarily removing a wall on the outside of the first braking area and adding painted kerbs two metres in from the track edge that riders are not allowed to cross.

Which layout MotoGP will use in the future, and any further alterations to either, will be discussed by the Grand Prix Commission.

"In the next commission meeting we will discuss with the riders and we will see what they think about this new layout," Uncini said.

"After we will have some more data, so we will read the data that we have about the incident and we can decide all together to see if it's better to keep this new layout or to come back in the old layout."

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