Marc Marquez’ (Repsol Honda Team) weekend at the PTT Thailand Grand Prix certainly ended the way he would have dreamed of, but it didn’t begin in ideal fashion. FP1 saw Marquez suffer a monster highside at Turn 7 and his race suit manufacturer Alpinestars have released data of the crash that saw the Spaniard visit hospital.
#TechTuesday fact: @marcmarquez93's crash during FP1 in Thailand saw his airbag deploy 585ms before he made impact with the ground (max accel. 26.14g). In 2016 @lorisbaz had an even bigger impact at 29.9g on his left shoulder when he crashed at Sepang #AlpinestarsProtects pic.twitter.com/cFtozn2Q6i
— alpinestars (@alpinestars) October 8, 2019
So, what can we see from the data? There were two seconds between Marquez losing control of his RC213V and the crash, with the airbag being deployed 0.585 seconds before Marquez made contact with the asphalt. On the first impact with the ground, the left shoulder sensor registered a staggering impact of 26.14Gs. However, this didn’t quite match the reading that Loris Baz registered when he crashed at the Sepang Test in 2016 – the Frenchman’s left shoulder clocked 29.9Gs.
For a bit of context, a professional golf player’s swing when the club impacts with the ball is 19Gs. In addition, a car crash at 64kph is said to be 35Gs – in simple terms, Marquez’ impact with the ground was substantial.
Thankfully, largely down to the sensational airbag safety technology that all Grand Prix race suits now have, Marquez was able to get away from one of his biggest ever crashes relatively unscathed. Two days later, the number 93 beat Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) to Thai GP glory to claim his eighth World Championship. Yet more evidence - not that we needed it - of just how heroic Marquez is.
Photo credit: Chang International Circuit