Spanish police said on Tuesday that preliminary findings point to excessive speed as the main factor in the car crash that killed Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his younger brother, Andre Silva, last week. An expert team from the Guardia Civil’s traffic division concluded from tyre-mark analysis that Jota was driving the Lamborghini Huracán at well above the 120-kilometre-per-hour motorway limit when it veered off the A-52 near Palacios de Sanabria, Zamora, and burst into flames. The investigation report, still being finalised, will be submitted to a court in Puebla de Sanabria. Officers said a suspected tyre blow-out during an overtaking manoeuvre remains under review, but “all the evidence so far indicates” speed was a decisive element and that the 28-year-old footballer was behind the wheel. The crash occurred shortly after midnight on 3 July as the brothers travelled toward the port of Santander, where Jota planned to board a ferry to England for Liverpool’s pre-season training after being advised not to fly following recent lung surgery. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene. Jota had joined Liverpool from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020 for about €49 million and had just married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, 11 days before the accident. Funerals for the brothers were held on Saturday in their hometown of Gondomar, Portugal. Liverpool resumed training on Tuesday after postponing the start of its pre-season in the wake of the tragedy.