Despite an overwhelming sense of tragedy, the Catalunya Grand Prix weekend will continue at the blessing of the Salom family. The event has been overshadowed by the death of Luis Salom after the Spaniard succumbed to injuries sustained in a crash at turn twelve and the accident has led to changes to the Barcelona circuit configuration.
After today’s events, a Safety Commission meeting took place attended by Marc Marquez, Andrea Iannone, Pol Espargaro, Jack Miller, Bradley Smith, Alvaro Bautista, Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Dovizioso, Tito Rabat and Cal Crutchlow. It was agreed that a change to the Formula 1 layout would be implemented, meaning the fast sweeping turn 12 will be replaced by a left/right chicane, and turn 10 will now revert to the slower hairpin bend, providing greater run-off in the event of an accident.
To allow riders to acclimatise to the new layout which was last used by MotoGP riders in a test two years ago, tomorrow’s free practice sessions have been extended with a new schedule as follows (local time):
08:40-09:35 – 55 min. – Moto3 Free Practice 3
09:50-10:50 – 60 min. – MotoGP Free Practice 3
11:05-12:05 – 60 min. – Moto2 Free Practice 3
Qualifying and the races for all three classes will run as scheduled.