Work to improve safety at the Sachsenring circuit has received FIM approval today, allowing construction to start to extend runoff at the track. The gravel traps at Turn 1 - at the end of the front straight - and Turn 10 - the fast left kink before cresting the hill at the top of the Waterfall - are to be extended to make the track safer, in response to requests from the MotoGP riders made in the Safety Commission.
Turn 1 was particularly notorious. It was at Turn 1 that Dani Pedrosa's 2008 title challenge came to a premature end, when the Spaniard crashed in the soaking rain, sliding along the track and hitting the air fence at the back of the gravel trap, fracturing his wrist in the process. Despite the shortness of the Sachenring's front straight, speeds reached on the approach to Turn 1 are high, and the gravel trap, at the end of a slight downhill section, is fractionally too short for the speeds which modern MotoGP machinery can reach along the front straight. Turn 1 was one of the main points raised in the Safety Commission when they met at the 2011 race in July last year.
Kevin Cogan Peter Collins Bernard Collomb Alberto Colombo Erik Comas Franco Comotti George Connor
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