Friday’s running at Le Mans was held in bright and warm conditions across both sessions, with Gresini’s Enea Bastianini beating the outright lap record in FP2 to end the day fastest. But across both sessions there were 14 crashes at various points of the track.
Le Mans is known for being the circuit with the highest crash rate in years gone by, with an infamous dry Friday in 2018 featuring 109 tumbles across all three classes. But conditions at Le Mans are typically cold, which made Friday’s spills seem unusual from the outside.
KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, who fell twice in FP1, says he had no answer for why there were so many crashes and felt like the track was “sensitive” in how it offered grip.
“I cannot really say for sure, but it feels like you have good grip, good temperature,” Oliveira said when asked by Autosport for an explanation of Friday’s crashes.
“But all of a sudden you either lose the front or lose the rear. So, somehow the track is sensitive.
“For example, most of them [a few years ago] were Turn 2 because of the left cold side. But today we’ve seen a lot of crashes in a lot of places, I don’t know.”
Ducati’s Jack Miller offered a similar comment, after the 2021 French GP winner had a “strange” crash at Turn 11 this afternoon.
“Real strange one to be honest,” Miller said of the fall.
KTM rider Oliveira fell twice on Friday, and cited that the track was “sensitive”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“Just started forcing the tyre in the middle of the corner and both sort of let go on me. The grip didn’t feel all that bad but when it let go, it let go really quickly like we saw with a lot of guys – no explanation.
“Like I said, the grip feels good till it doesn’t. It feels not bad and then all of a sudden she’s gone, it’s a strange situation.
“I don’t know because the medium tyre felt pretty good, and the rear’s lasting well and the front is not locking or anything like that.
“But…
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