Valentino Rossi has spoken out against the tight Turn 10 left-hander of the Barcelona circuit where he was taken out in the Catalan Grand Prix, dubbing it “supermarket parking”.
Rossi, along with Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, was collected by the crashing Jorge Lorenzo at Turn 10 on the second lap of Sunday’s race.
The corner has proven conducive to crashes in the past, with former Ducati and current Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone collecting Lorenzo in 2016.
The turn was first used after Moto2 rider Luis Salom’s fatal accident that year, and was added to the layout along with the Formula 1 version of the final chicane as a safety measure.
The chicane was scrapped and the old Turn 13 was reinstated after the barrier on the exit was moved further back – though the F1 Turn 10 remained in use.
Despite its use on safety grounds, Rossi says it is “not a race track corner”, and believes the nature of the turn leads to more crashes happening.
“I don’t know what happened because we wanted to go on the normal layout for motorcycles in the last two corners, they make a lot of work for the run-off area,” Rossi said.
“But why [do] we have this [alternate Turn 10] corner? I try to fight to have the Circuit of Catalunya corner, the long left that is very good [reinstated]. But for some reason, we use this. This corner is like supermarket parking.
“For me it is not a race track corner. In a corner like this. it’s easier for [crashes to] happen.”
Race winner Marc Marquez, however, says there are plenty of similar corners at other tracks, and that the old Turn 10 wouldn’t be safe enough.
“So, about Turn 10, it’s another turn. You need to know it’s a hard brake point. In Austin how many turns we have like this? In Austria how many turns do we have like this?
“I mean, it’s another turn and you need to understand. But the most important thing is we change the layout for safety, and the other turn – the natural one – the wall is very close.
“In 2015 I already see that; I was on the gravel and I lean the bike because if not I was in the wall.
“So it’s another kind of turn that everybody knows that can be like this, that can have this incident [like Lorenzo’s], but for me, in the calendar, we have many turns with this kind of layout.”
Marquez’s viewpoint was echoed by Dovizioso, who added: “That corner is not the best, for sure, but we did that [change the layout] for the safety.
“There is not enough room on the outside, and there isn’t enough possibility to increase that place because there is a mountain, downhill.”
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