Bent brake lever after dangerous group battle leaves Salom crashing out of Italian GP

Mugello has not brought RW Racing GP what it hoped for. With Brad Binder riding a lonely race and finishing in 24th, and Luis Salom crashing out on 12th position in only the second lap the Italian GP is a race to forget.

The warm up session in the morning showed a determined Salom with faster lap times than he did in qualifying. But a relatively innocent touché on the fast home straight of the Mugello circuit ruined the Spaniards prospects just a few corners later.

The next race for Moto3 is Indianapolis in four weeks. The team is now going into a well-deserved summer break.

Luis Salom (DNF): “My start was not perfect, but not too bad either. I did not want to take much risk in the beginning of the race and decided to stay in the group as long as we could stay in touch with the leading riders. The problem with riding in a big group like this one is that there is always someone who tries more than is possible. Someone touched me on the straight and hit my brake lever. It was straight up and I had to push it back in position somehow, or I couldn’t brake. Because of that I ran underneath Moncayo. He closed the door, I couldn’t brake properly and took both of us out. I’m really sorry for Moncayo, but I couldn’t do much about it. I’m okay, I didn’t hurt myself badly and I am still third in the championship. I have lost many points with this, but I realize anything is still possible.”

Team manager Johan Stigefelt: “For Luis it is just a shame someone hit the brake lever. But ‘what if’ doesn’t count at this level unfortunately. Now we have the summer break the riders can recover and we will continue working. So will Kalex and KTM. They have done a lot of work for us in the first part of the season and I am sure they will continue during the summer as well. The new engine for Luis we got here is very fast. We expect a new one for Brad in Indianapolis.”

Source: RW Racing GP Press Release