Aragon MotoGP, Spain
Date: 18-19 September
Saturday 18 September: Qualifying: 1150-1500, BBC Red Button and Online Sunday 19 September: Race live: 1230-1400, BBC Two and Online, 125cc & Moto2: 0950-1205, Red Button and Online, MotoGP Extra: 1400-1430, Red Button and Online

By Steve Parrish BBC MotoGP commentator

Tomizawa began the season with victory at the Qatar Moto2 grand prix

After the nightmares of Indianapolis and San Marino, where two riders died, this weekend's trip to the new MotoGP venue at Motorland in Aragon is just what we need.

Before 2010, the last time we lost a rider was in 2003, when Daijiro Kato was killed. That is what makes the death of Moto2 rider Shoya Tomizawa in San Marino last weekend so much harder to take.

Back when I was riding in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we could lose 10 riders in a year, so the sport is a lot safer.

The worst incident I remember occurred at Monza in 1973, when world champion Jarno Saarinen and Italian champion Renzo Pasolini died in the same accident after hitting a patch of oil and skidding off into railway sleepers.

Tracks are so safe these days but there is always the danger of being hit by a bike.

Tomizawa was hit by two - and it was clear straight away that his accident was very serious.

I was amazed but relieved that Britain's Scott Redding, who was riding one of the bikes that hit Tomizawa, was OK. He must have hit the ground head-first at 140mph.

The riders competing in the MotoGP were unaware of his death when they began their race, but the media were told halfway through.

There was no danger of this weekend's race being delayed or cancelled, though. To postpone races because someone is killed would not have been what Tomizawa wanted.

He sat on the grid knowing what the risks are - all riders do. What happened to him could happen to anyone.

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Whether you are at the front or the back, you are still going fast enough to die - and you do not even have to be on the fastest part of the track to suffer serious injury or worse.

American teenager Peter Lenz was killed at Indianapolis recently when he was going at about 40mph.

Switching my focus to the action this weekend, I am told the facilities are superb at Motorland but the track is in the middle of nowhere, so it seems an odd place to build a circuit.

I will be intrigued to see how many people turn up given the nearest large town, Zaragoza, is about 150km away.

We are only here because the original venue for this race, in Hungary, was not going to be built in time.

Motorland only has a one-year deal to stage the race at the moment but it is possible the Aragon track could become a regular fixture, although that would mean four races in Spain each season.

As for the riders, Dani Pedrosa is the form man - and as Jorge Lorenzo's only serious rival for the title, the Repsol Honda star is the guy with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I think the experience of being in the hunt for the title has done Pedrosa some good. He is now showing more aggression and determination than we have seen before.

But if Pedrosa has any chance of winning the title, then Lorenzo has to avoid scoring any points on his Fiat Yamaha this weekend.

My Aragon race prediction:

1) Dani Pedrosa 2) Valentino Rossi 3) Jorge Lorenzo

Steve Parrish was talking to BBC Sport's Julian Shea.

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