Official SAG Team press release after the deep telemetry analysis done on Luis Salom’s bike
On Friday June 3rd Luis Salom passed away during the Gran Premi of Catalunya FP2 session after an accident suffered at the turn 12 of the Catalunya circuit.
After receiving the telemetry data yesterday Sunday June 5th by the organization, the technical staff of the SAG Team held immediately a meeting to personally determinate the facts of the accident and to communicate afterwards with exactitude what happened in technical terms at the fatal turn 12 of the Circuit of Catalunya. In the comprehensive analysis done on the telemetry data assisted the owner of the team Edu Perales, the team manager Jordi Rubio, the chief mechanic of Luis Salom Bernat Bassa, the chief mechanic of Jesko Raffin Michael Ferger, the Moto2 rider Jesko Raffin and the manager of Luis Salom Marco Rodrigo.
During the course of the FP2, Luis Salom faced his first laps and makes his best lap (1’48.608) before making his first pit stop to change the rear tire of the bike. After that, Salom comes back on the track and during that same out of the pits lap he suffers the accident. In that lap, Luis arrived to the turn 12 braking reference point 6 km/h slower than his fastest lap, according to the telemetry that was because a lower acceleration at the exit of turn 11. Due to that reduced speed, Luis operated the brakes 9 meters later to maintain a proper corner speed at the turn 12. At the entry of the corner there is an irregularity on the asphalt known by all the riders (bump). The delay of the braking instant made Luis to maintain the brakes operated running over that asphalt irregularity, as opposed the previous laps where he already had released the brakes on that spot. All of that added to an even speed than his best lap of the FP2 produced a stress on the front tire and a grip lost on the irregularity of the asphalt. That grip lost produced the crash with the tragic outcome that we all know.
These telemetry data provided by the organization are available to any qualified technician with desires to analyze it.