The motorcycle world in mourning. The 19-year-old Swiss rider Jason Dupasquier died this Sunday morning following his serious accident during the Italian Moto 3 Grand Prix on Saturday.
“Despite the efforts of the circuit’s medical team and all those who subsequently took care of the Swiss driver, the hospital (Editor’s note: Careggi, in Florence, where he had been transported) announced that Dupasquier unfortunately succumbed to his injuries, ”announced the promoter of the World Motorcycle Sprint Championship in a press release.
Jason Dupasquier “underwent chest surgery overnight for a vascular injury,” Carregi Hospital in Florence had indicated a few hours earlier. “Serious brain damage persists,” added a spokesperson for the hospital. The young man therefore succumbed to his injuries.
Motorcycles, a family affair
On Saturday, during the race, Dupasquier fell in the last moments of qualifying, between turns 9 and 10 of the Mugello circuit. According to television footage showing only the end of his fall and statements from the other riders involved, Japanese Ayumu Sasaki and Spaniard Jeremy Alcoba, he was hit by at least one motorcycle, before sliding lifeless on the track.
After forty minutes of intervention by rescuers, the 19-year-old Swiss was transferred by medical helicopter to Carregi hospital in Florence. Son of motocross and Supermoto rider Philippe Dupasquier, Jason, who wore the N.50, made his World Cup debut in 2020 under the colors of the German team PrüstelGP, which races KTMs. He scored no points and placed 28th in his first season. In 2021, after five starts, he was 10th in the drivers’ standings with 27 units.
Even before the announcement of his death, PrüstelGP and Dupasquier’s compatriot Thomas Lüthi, who plays in Moto2, had decided not to start the GP in their respective categories on Sunday. On the Mugello circuit on Sunday, many drivers wear stickers in tribute to the young Swiss. The last rider to die in the Grand Prix, before Dupasquier, was the Spaniard Luis Salom at the 2016 Catalan GP in Moto2.
