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Sepang to look into safety after MotoGP death

Sepang will look into the safety of the Malaysian grand prix venue following Sunday’s death of MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli.

The Italian, whose helmet came off during the incident, died in Malaysia after he partially fell from his Honda and was struck from behind by rivals Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards.

Sepang, built ahead of its 1999 debut, also hosts F1’s annual Malaysian round.

Circuit chairman Mokhzani Mahathir told AFP it is a “safe track”.

“It is a sad and unfortunate racing accident but the circuit is designed to the highest safety levels,” he said.

“(The) accident was beyond anybody’s control or expectation.”

He added however that officials will look into whether safety can be improved at Sepang.

“We will see from it (the investigation) if there is anything we could have done differently,” said Mokhzani.

Also referring to Dan Wheldon’s recent death, Force India driver Adrian Sutil told reporters in India on Monday that “everybody knows” MotoGP and Indycar are more dangerous than F1.

“I can say that formula one is pretty safe and secure,” said the German.

© RIF | GMM