Espargaro fractures hand in Turn 1 crash, expects to race at Sepang
Aleix Espargaro suffered a fracture to his left hand when he crashed at the Doohan corner in the opening stages of the Phillip Island MotoGP race, but expects to ride next weekend in Malaysia.
The Spaniard recovered from a poor start from eighth on the grid to get amongst the eight-rider group battling for the lead in the early part of the 27-laps Australian Grand Prix.
Espargaro – who began the Phillip Island weekend topping the Friday timesheets, the first time an Aprilia rider has done so with a four-stroke MotoGP bike – found himself in sixth spot as he hurtled across down the Gardner Straight to start lap eight and was lining up home hero Jack Miller for a pass.
The Aprilia rider tried to go around the outside of the Marc VDS man at the first corner – who led for the first six laps – but ran off line and slid into the gravel.
Espargaro suffered a fracture to the fourth metacarpal on his left hand, and was advised to have surgery on it. However, he has opted against this and is set to participate in next weekend’s race at Sepang.
“The was going well,” began the Aprilia rider.
“Despite a less than perfect start, I had already rejoined the leading group and I had a good feeling.
“Unfortunately, as I was overtaking Miller on the first turn, I went a bit too wide, ending up on the dirty part of the track and sliding out.
“I should be able to participate in the race in Malaysia even with the injury to my hand.
“We’ll see what the conditions are on Friday.”
Espargaro‘s team-mate Sam Lowes came from the back of the grid to finish 19th, a result he admits to being ‘satisfied’ with.