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“It’s too dangerous!”: Ex-WorldSBK star urges change after Toprak Razgatlioglu injury | World Superbikes
Former MotoGP and WorldSBK race winner Marco Melandri has added his voice to the chorus of those urging officials to initiate changes to the layout of the Circuit de Nevers-Magny-Cours after Toprak Razgatlioglu suffered injuries in a collision with the wall during the WorldSBK round.
The Turkish rider – who came into Round 8 of the season on a 13-race victory streak – saw his charge towards a second career WorldSBK title brought to an abrupt halt when he fell during a damp FP3 session at Lycee and made contact with the inside wall.
The awkward crash, which saw his ROKiT BMW M 1000 RR fold beneath him when he hit the brakes and led to him sliding into a wall to his right on the inside of the right-hander, hospitalised Razgatlioglu, where he was diagnosed with a mild traumatic pneumothorax. The injury would sideline him for all three races in France, while he remains a doubt for the upcoming Cremona round in Italy too.
Though the wall is in place so as to prevent any riders or motorcycles experiencing an accident before the corner sliding back into the path of rivals on the exit of the 90-degree right-hander, many have questioned if its positioning represents its own hazard too.
Though Melandri – the 2005 MotoGP World Championship runner-up – accepts the wall serves a correct purpose to prevent another potentially bigger accident, he is otherwise adamant the wall is too dangerous in itself.
Speaking in a video on his Instagram channel, Melandri believes the circuit layout itself should be changed to remove the need for having a wall there in the first place.
“A lot of questions and I agree with you, everybody saying it’s too dangerous,” the Italian, who also achieved 22 race wins at WorldSBK level too, says.
“Many people say if you move the wall it’s dangerous because you can cross to the next part of the track, which is true. So the wall cannot move – what else can you do?
“The only thing possible to do – it is easy – is change the track layout.
“You have to change the layout of two corners, maybe only 10 metres because if it works then you brake earlier and you go into the wall, for sure, you go slower but on the grass you don’t stop, you go into the wall and you die.”
Melandri’s words have struck a chord with fans with many agreeing with him on the comments thread, not least current WorldSBK racer Scott Redding, who commented ‘I agree with you 100%’.
