Marquez has a rival for the “fastest-ever” MotoGP crash, after Ducati test rider Michele Pirro (31) had a terrifying up-and-over at the same place, the end of Mugello’s notoriously rapid straight.
The fastest spot of the season is not actually quite straight, and more dauntingly runs over a blind brow at its end, where the front wheel lifts. As it lands, riders have to hit the brakes to drop from around 350 km/h to around 90 for the first corner.
Wild card Pirro, vastly experienced at Ducati’s test circuit, had led much of the morning session, ending up a close second. In the afternoon, running fast on his sixth timed lap, Pirro wobbled on landing, grabbed the brake, and locked the front at close to top speed.
The bike nose-dived and he was flung high, far and fast over the handlebars. He was knocked out by the impact, but had regained consciousness by the time he was taken away by ambulance. Later the 31-year-old was taken to hospital for a precautionary CT scan because of being knocked out, but he had escaped any injury worse than a dislocated shoulder, that was immediately relocated.
Marquez crashed in the same place in 2013, measured at 337 km/h, and for a similar reason – though he bailed off the bike rather than getting thrown, and was back to race on Sunday.