The question was repeated. This Saturday the riders parked their motorcycles and asked if, in the 15 minutes that they had been racing, someone had called from the Hospital of Florence. There was never news. Until this Sunday morning at Mugello, the MotoGP World Championship pretended nothing was happening; then came the breakdown. Again a deceased young man. Again a run over. As was cried with the Italian
Marco Simoncelli
in 2011 or with the Japanese
Shoya Tomizawa
in 2010, another rider's motorcycle killed
Jason Dupasquier
, a 19-year-old Swiss boy in his second season in the Moto3 World Championship.
It happened on Saturday in the last moments of the category qualifying session. When the chronometer had already run out and all the contenders were hurrying their laps, Dupasquier lost control of his KTM when exiting Turn 9, the very fast Arrabiata 2, and fell on the asphalt. The organization of the championship offered few images of what happened -the usual protocol in these cases-, but according to what could be observed in these, the Japanese
Ayumu Sasaki
did not manage to avoid him and, before flying off, hit his body and left him badly injured in middle of the track. Due to the speed of the group and the harshness of the impact, the stewards quickly suspended the session and stopped the activity on the circuit.
For more than half an hour, the Swiss was treated on the asphalt, then the helicopter parked on the runway itself and, after an eternal time, he was taken to the Hospital of Florence.
According to the 'Efe agency' published, in the medical center they carried out several tests and he was operated on for a cerebral edema and a thoracic contusion.
As the World Cup organization confirmed this Sunday, the surgeons could not save his life.
In his prime
Dupasquier was enjoying the best moment of his career after a winter working in Barcelona. Fleeing the snow and cold of his country, for the first time in his life he became emancipated, rented an apartment in Spain and spent several weeks training at the Montmeló circuit, at the Vallgorguina Motocross Motor Park, in various kartings or cycling through Collserola. "In January and February I worked very, very hard and that changed me physically and mentally," he commented to 'Actumoto', his country's magazine, about the preseason that transformed him. After spending all of 2020 without scoring, accumulating races among the last, this 2021 he had rubbed shoulders with the best and even in Jerez he aspired to the podium. As he recognized, in recent weeks he was enjoying his own evolution.
Son of
Phillipe Dupasquier
, who contested the Motocross World Championship between 1993 and 2003, Jason was soon drawn to speed. At the age of 15 he was already champion of the NEC Championship, the northern European championship that takes place between Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, and later he trained in the Junior World Cup and the Red Bull Rookies Cup. Last year he appeared in the World Cup. Moto3 from the hand of the German Pruestel GP team, who had renewed him for this course.
His fatality is the continuation of the long scourge that overshadows the MotoGP World Championship.
Since the start of competitions in the 1950s, more than 60 pilots have died.
Until this Saturday, the deaths of
Luis Salom
, who hit his own motorcycle in Montmeló in 2016;
Marco Simoncelli;
Shoya Tomizawa;
or the also Japanese
Daijiro Kato
, who crashed into a wall in Suzuka in 2003, had been the last unfortunates mourned by the paddock.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
MotoGPPedro Acosta, the new prodigy who cried in his first race: "He was scared"
Moto3A child for history: Pedro Acosta wins his third race in a row
Motorcycling 2021Quartararo signs a pole record in MotoGP amid the controversy Márquez-Viñales
See links of interest
2021 business calendar
Home THE WORLD TODAY
Giro Stage 20: Verbania - Alpe Motta
Tenerife - Real Oviedo
Manchester City - Chelsea, live
Giro Stage 21: Senago - Milan
MotoGP Italian Grand Prix, live