Luis Salom’s Moto2 team releases crash data to explain fatal fall

Luis Salom’s SAG Team has released a statement about the crash which claimed the youngster on Friday, June 3.

The team says that Salom, who died as a result of injuries sustained during a crash at turn 12 during the Free Practice 2 session in Catalunya, Spain, was into the turn later on the brakes than before and it was this that had a bearing on events.

The team’s announcement says that Salom was braking later than normal into turn 12 having lost some pace out of turn 11. Salom braked into turn 12 some nine metres later than normal and was 6km/h slower at that point than he had been on his fastest lap.

Because of the late braking, Salom hit a bump at just the wong moment when he was hitting the brakes hard – on previous laps he’d already released the brakes by the same bumpy part of the turn – the combination of late braking and hard braking over the bump caused the front tyre to wash out and Salom lost control of the bike.