The lesson of MotoGP family unity at Motegi

It is often said behind the scenes that the MotoGP paddock can be a jungle, but when it comes to pitching in, gestures of unity also define the true MotoGP family. And one occurred on Thursday night at Motegi when a heavy plume of smoke began to emerge from the Marc VDS Moto2 box.

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On Thursday at eight o’clock local time in Japan, when the team mechanic had set up the boxes and the bikes and had returned to the hotel, there was an accidental fire in the pitlane of the Motegi circuit which affected the box number 12 assigned. in the Moto2 team Marc VDS, located between Suzuki and Aprilia MotoGP.

The alarm was triggered by heavy smoke and the few mechanics who were left at that time in the pit laneespecially those from two adjacent boxes, came out of their boxes, the garage door of the Belgian team of Marc Van der Strassen opened and fire extinguishers in hand tried to put out the fire and, above all, save the team’s two bikes, those of Sam Lowes and Tony Arbolino they did.

A few hours later, the Marc VDS team released a note on its social networks thanking everyone who averted such a disaster for the team in the middle of the triplet of races.

“After extinguishing the fire in the box, the relevant inspections showed that the fire started when some rainwater entered the garage and reached the ground, where it ended up on a charger. That, in turn, triggered of a few sparks, which then quickly turned into flames,” they explained.

“Fortunately, thanks to the incredible work done by all the people from the paddock who were there, the security and circuit firefighters, the damage was kept to a minimum.”

“The Elf Marc VDS team would like to publicly thank the work and great help provided by all our colleagues in the paddock, with a special mention to the Suzuki team who worked with us to clean and rebuild the box like in them.”

Guille Carrillo, one of the team’s Spanish mechanics -this came at a time when Alex Márquez rode for them in Moto2 and now for Arbolino- also took to social media to thank those who helped them and those who offered to do so. The entire team returned to Mito’s hotel and quickly returned to be notified while the team in the paddock performed a miracle of extinguishing the fire. Then they helped prepare everything again.

“Many thanks to the members of Suzuki and Aprilia, forced open the (pit) door, put out the fire and took the bikes out of the burning garage. Heroes. But that was not enough for them, they stayed with us in cleaning. and refinishing. set up the box”.

“Not forgetting who called us, and other people who helped, Eric and Pol from Dorna (from Dorna’s on-board camera system), Albert Talamino (LCR), and people who offered help by phone like Honda, Fran from Pramac, Andrea from KTM, Sandra from Gresini and Laura from KTM-Ajo”.

“AGAIN, thanks to everyone who has caring. Now to rest, to forget (one more story for our future grandchildren), to fight jet lag… and the show must go on,” Carrillo wrote.

And this Friday morning it was all set for Tony Arbolino and Sam Lowes to complete that FP1 in sixth and twenty-sixth positions (the Brit returning after an injury layoff).

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