Team Suzuki Ecstar’s newest signing Alex Rins was taken to hospital after a nasty crash at Turn 12 during the second day of pre-season testing in Valencia, where it was revealed he had suffered an injury to his back.
The Spanish rider endured a pretty bruising second half to the 2016 season and would have been hoping for an incident-free start to his MotoGP career with Suzuki. His first day on the GSX-RR was a decent one. Rins completed 71 laps and put in a best time of 1m32.8s to go 21st on the time sheets and 1.8 seconds off the pace.
Keen to improve on what he’d learnt on Tuesday, Rins was out early in the session today. However, just 45 minutes into the test he crashed heavily at Turn 12. The Spaniard braked on a white line that had quite a lot of rubber on it and lost the front-end. He was stretchered off track and sent to the medical centre before being transferred to the local hospital for further checks.
Twitter: .@Rins42 has had a fast crash down at turn 12, he’s been taken to the medical centre. News when we get it https://t.co/HyRoxRmEkw (@MotoGP)
A CT scan and an MRI revealed that he had suffered lesions to his T8 and T12 vertebra, though luckily avoided damaging his spine. The injury will likely see him out of action for at least a month, and also means that he won’t be present for a private test in Jerez next week.
“It was a pity to crash early today because I was eager to improve the feeling with the bike and we were following the correct work-plan with the team,” said Rins, who steps up to MotoGP next year after two seasons in Moto2.
“I’m disappointed because this test was important to find out the first impressions and to get confidence with the bike, but unfortunately we can’t change what was happened. Now it’s time to come back home, take some rest; and then think about the pre-season. I would like to thank all the Team SUZUKI ECSTAR members for the kindness to me during these set-up days and for all the work they did to show me the best way to kick-off in the MotoGP world.”
His teammate Andrea Iannone also crashed at Turn 12 not long after the Spaniard, totalling his Suzuki and forcing an hour stoppage to allow the marshals to fix the damaged barrier. The Italian had a big crash yesterday as well, along with test rider Takuya Tsuda, at Turn 10, so today’s spills will have greatly expanded the Japanese manufacturer’s repair bill.
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