Quartararo “lucky” not to break anything in FP1 crash
Fabio Quartararo admits he’s “lucky” to escape his heavy MotoGP Australian Grand Prix FP1 crash without any broken bones, and blamed the tumble on a lack of wet riding experience.
The Petronas SRT Yamaha rider was flicked from his bike while off-throttle at the Turn 6 left-hander of Siberia in the closing stages of a rain-hit first practice, and had to be taken to the medical centre for checks.
While no major injuries were found, he did suffer a hematoma on his left ankle and was benched for second practice by his team, and will undergo further checks on Saturday morning to assess his condition.
Explaining the crash, Quartararo says his hand “got stuck” in the fairing of the bike when he was thrown from it, and was fortunate not to do any further damage.
“Well, [I’m in] quite a lot of pain actually,” Quartararo said.
“Honestly, I wanted to try [and ride in FP2] today, but I’m unfit. We will go back to the medical centre tomorrow to see of I am fit or not, but it was not a nice crash.
“I’m feeling in pain – nothing broken, luckily. We will try our best for tomorrow. If we can ride, it’s good. If not, we will not take another risk.
“So, yeah, just feel pleased nothing is broken. I lost the rear, and I wasn’t on the brakes and I lose the rear. It [the rear tyre] retook the grip and I [was thrown] high.
“I was lucky, because I had a big twitch on my ankle, my hand was stick in the bike and I’m really pleased that I didn’t break anything in my body.”
Quartararo believes the crash was caused by his lack of wet track time this season in MotoGP, and thinks he selected an incorrect engine map for the conditions.
“I don’t have enough experience in the wet conditions,” he added.
“So, actually, the [engine] maps, I didn’t make a good [selection] with it.
“So, just taking experience [from this crash], it’s normal this year. We haven’t had a lot of crashes and I think you learn from it.
“So, we know why we crash and now just looking forward to seeing how the pain is tomorrow.”
Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont
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About this article
| Series | MotoGP |
| Event | Australian GP |
| Drivers | Fabio Quartararo |
| Teams | SIC Racing Team |
| Author | Lewis Duncan |
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