Dainese explain Jorge Lorenzo’s Valencia airbag deploy

Dainese has released an official statement concerning the deployment of Jorge Lorenzo’s D-Air Racing airbag suit at the final round of the MotoGP 2009 championship.

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Lorenzo, who was dicing with team-mate Valentino Rossi at the time, had a big moment on the bike during the race which set off the airbag system despite the title runner-up staying on the bike.

After a week of dissection of the suit, Dainese has released this official line.

“During the fourth lap of the MotoGP race in Valencia, Jorge Lorenzo’s D-Air® opened instantly when the racer’s bike underwent an exceptionally violent yaw, in this way providing precious technical information for the perfection of the system.

“The telemetry data derived submitted to careful examination showed that the D-Air® system reacted correctly without perceivably influencing the racer’s riding.

“The analysis of the times in that section of the racetrack revealed a modest delay of 6-7 tenths of a second caused primarily by the loss of balance and the opening of the air-bag, which successively deflated in the established time of around 20 seconds.

“All this goes to show the system’s harmlessness above all: instant inflation does not compromise the rider’s ability to control the vehicle or continue the race in any way, obviously whenever the skid does not lead to a fall.

“The yaw of Lorenzo’s bike as faithfully recorded by telemetry was sharp and abrupt. 

“Even if rare, events of this degree can be particularly dangerous for riders if they develop into a high-side.

“Detecting the danger, the Dainese D-Air® Dainese triggered and inflated before the impact took place: a “delayed” inflation is no use in the event of a high-side.

“In this case, the Spanish ace’s enormous talent enabled him to regain control of his M1 bike.

“Another extremely interesting bit of information provided by telemetry analysis showed that the trigger level set for the opening of the D-Air® was exceeded by a mere less than 1%.

“This demonstrates that the system has reached highly-advanced levels of development and reliability and that it now only requires “fine tuning” in its electronics and ergonomics.

“Last but not least, at the end of Sunday’s race when he was informed of the first analysis results, Jorge Lorenzo declared that he‘s more willing than ever to continue wearing the Dainese racing suit with built-in D-Air® system in both tests and races because he considers it a protector that he simply can’t go without!”