Vinales wants "dangerous" Barcelona chicane changed

Following the death of Moto2 rider Luis Salom last year, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya's Formula 1 layout was used for the rest of the weekend, with a new chicane for MotoGP then installed over the winter. 

Yamaha skipped a private test at the circuit in May, and after trying it for the first time and seeing a number of riders crash there, Vinales says he will look to discuss it further in Friday’s Safety Commission. 

“For me, it’s dangerous,” he said. “[If] it’s FP1, FP2 and if you saw the bike is in the middle, you cut the grass, OK, slow down then you don’t do your lap.

“In qualifying you’re not going to slow down, you’re going to push because you are coming for the hot lap.

“The rider is in the middle [of the corner], the bike is in the middle, the marshals are in the middle. If you crash in the second corner, you stay in the middle. If you crash in the first corner of the chicane, you go in the middle. It’s very strange.

“Last year we had the wall quite close but the riders didn’t go on the middle of the chicane. I’m going to try to ask [about a change]. I don’t want to see myself in the middle.”

Some riders had already expressed concerns about the new layout, but Cal Crutchlow said he was perplexed by the criticism as they had chosen the chicane.

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso said he raised his points during the Mugello Safety Commission meeting, but did not have an obvious answer.

“I don't have the solution but in the Safety Commission in Mugello I explained this,” he said. “The problem is, if we have a higher kerb I think it is better because nobody cuts the kerb, but if you have a higher kerb and you crash a corner before, you hit the kerb.

“So it is difficult to find a solution we will speak today again in the Safety Commission in this moment I believe this is the best compromise but that doesn't mean we are safe.”

Rossi says change "possible"

Valentino Rossi however was hopeful that the layout would revert to the F1 configuration, as there was a consensus at the Mugello Safety Commission meeting to do so.

"For me it’s possible to change, because last week in Mugello, already a lot of riders want to make the standard one, the F1 chicane," he explained. "But they said to us, Friday you try, and Friday night we decide together.

"So we hope that they are open to go to the F1 track."