Barros: I really don't know what happened.

Klaffi Honda rider Alex Barros had a lucky escape during round five of the Corona Extra Superbike World Championship at Silverstone when he was involved in the massive turn one smash.

Reigning world champion Troy Corser, his young team-mate Fabien Foret, Kawasaki's Fonsi Nieto and Barros were all involved in the incident at Copse Corner, with fans watching in horror as Barros slid across the tarmac followed by his machine - which had caught fire. The Brazilian managed to scramble of his feet and leap over the flaming Honda to avoid serious injury.

Speaking to Crash.net after the incident Barros said, "I really don't know what happened. I have watched the video and it looked like Foret made a mistake on the brakes and involved us all in the accident. I saw, but it was not very clear, something touched my back wheel. I was already leaning the machine and I just felt the push in the back and I lost control of the machine because the back tyre just went left and right.

"The moment I turned over I could see the machine come my way. So it allow me just to jump so it didn't to hurt me. This kind of thing you don't think as you don't have time. I am really very lucky because I was hit in the back and I fell forward and I couldn't see the machine so it could have hurt me in the back. I was very afraid because I know I crashed in front but it was someone's crash behind so I was worried about someone catching me, so I turned to see."

This is the second turn one pile up in World Superbikes at two consecutive race meetings, following a seven rider pile up at Monza. Barros blasted riders who he feels are not thinking ahead and taking chances that are unsafe.

"I think the riders need to think more. In racing there are accidents, it is normal because everyone wants to win, but the guys behind do so many crazy things for nothing," he said, "We had an accident at Monza and we had an accident here so there must be talks with these people because it is important to make this race a nice race."

Barros suggested that FG Sport need to have a meeting with the riders and point out the concerns, while he also suggested fining riders found responsible for kick starting a big crash. He gave the example of John Hopkins being fined and suspended from one race after causing an accident that took out four riders when he crashed at turn one at Motegi in 2003.

The last time Barros raced at Silverstone he was on the longer circuit and he admitted he preferred it to the shorter circuit that they ran this weekend.

"To be honest, I don't like this track because I like the old one. I raced on the old one and it was really nice, I think the people destroy the track. To make a race like that, I'm talking about lines, I'm not talking about the infrastructure as it is really nice. Normally I don't have problem with the track but this track is not fun, for the machine it is too slow. The first part is quite fast and the under the bridge is quite nice the right and left but after is stop and it is not really fun for riding."

Looking ahead to round six of the Championship at Misano, Barros is hoping to have some new traction control electronics on the bike:

"We tested there and the machine improved and I hope the electronics should come for the Misano race. Honda is working right now in America with PI and if this can come I should be in good shape for Misano as it is really important to have traction control," he concluded.