June 21th, 2006 - The carnage at Catalunya

This past weekend was no less than spectacular as far as MotoGP racing was concerned. Let us visit the awesomeness that was the race at Catalunya. If you watched, you witnessed the "incident" at the first corner. MAN DOWN!!! What a disaster! Sete Gibernau's brake handle hit Capirossi's knee while traveling at a little over 120 MPH, sending his bike flipping down the track, taking several riders out with it. John Hopkins, Melandri, Dani Pedrosa, Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet all fell victim. Here's a breakdown of the injuries sustained by the riders:

Marco Milandri : collar bone dislocation, mild concussion and a multitude of minor injuries

Loris Capirossi : severe abdominal bruising

Sete Gibernau : concussion and fracture to left collarbone requiring surgery. To add a little insult to injury, the ambulance carrying Sete was involved in a traffic accident after leaving the track. There were no further injuries from the accident... but I think it's safe to say he had a bad day!

Hopkins, de Puniet, and Pedrosa continued to the re-start.... Hopkins finished 4th, de Puniet crashed out again on lap 6, and Pedrosa crashed out again too after making contact with Roberts, Jr.

In the end, the podium order was Rossi, Hayden and Roberts, Jr.... congratulations boys!

Of all the riders involved, Sete is the only one that will require surgery and will be out for 4 to 5 weeks at minimum. The others will be back on their rockets and on-track for the next TT race on the 24th.




Here are some photos courtesy of Crash.net. Click on the thumbnails to open the full-size image in a new window

Capirossi going down.. Sete's bike topside-down in middle of pack	Kenny Roberts, Jr. escaped the carnage... Gibernau down
Randy de Puniet in the gravel desperately trying to avoid Sete's airborne Duc
Capirossi (behind his bike), Gibernau and de Puniet	John Hopkins in the gravel, but still upright, de Puniet, Gibernau, Capirossi, and Pedrosa down... and one, big, flying Ducati
Pedrosa's bike, Pedrosa down (right) and I believe that's Melandri on the left in the dust	Ducati Marlboro team mates, Sete Gibernau (front) and Loris Capirossi. Capriossi was knocked unconscious.
Medics tending to Marco Melandri, and corner workers removing Melandri's bike and one of the Ducatis	Medics preparing Loris Capirossi for transport to the hospital

Until next time......

Rubb'er Down :)

Kristen