Loris Baz walked away from a 180mph crash along Sepang’s pit straight this morning after a problem caused his soft compound rear Michelin to fail in the opening hours of MotoGP testing.
It is not yet clear whether is was purely a tyre issue or whether there were contributing factors but Baz is well aware how lucky he was to escape from the incident unscathed.
“We checked the speed and I crashed at 290km/h so I am really lucky to be here. It was my second run and I had the new tyre just to make the laptime. Going into the last corner I heard something strange but I just wanted to finish the lap,” said Baz, speaking at Sepang.
“At the beginning I thought it was an engine or gearbox but it looks like a tyre problem touching the bike and that was the noise I was hearing. There was no strange feeling or chatter or that everything was going to explode. It was a scary moment.
“The rear locked fast so I tried to take the clutch but you know you are going to crash - at nearly 300km/h it is impossible. I knew I was going to crash but in the end everything was ok.”