Karel Abraham will have to undergo an x-ray on his ankle after colliding with his Aspar Ducati team-mate Alvaro Bautista towards the end of the second free practice session.
The Czech rider had just exited pit lane for the final seven minutes of FP2 with the soft tyre fitted for a time attack. Gingerly making his way through the opening few corners whilst his rubber came up to temperature, he wound up the pace heading through Turn 10 and into 11.
Twitter: Horrific looking crash for Karel Abraham heading onto the back straight! He’s up & walked off to the side of the tr… https://t.co/S968lgFsYk (@MotoGP)
He out-braked himself at the Turn 11 hairpin and, unsighted, he cut across Bautitsa, who thought Abraham was allowing him through. The Spaniard stayed on his bike, but Abraham, hit the deck quite heavily and hurt his ankle.
“It is disappointing because we just put the soft tyres on to make a better lap time, I went out and took the first few corners carefully then started to push,” recalls Abraham.
“I got to the hairpin before the back straight and braked a little too late, so I ran wide. When I turned and opened the throttle, unfortunately, Alvaro was exiting the corner at the same time, and I don’t know if his bike moved or what but he hit me from the side.
“I didn’t expect it, I had a big crash and the bike landed on me. Now I have pain in a couple of places. I need an x-ray on my ankle but I hope to be back on the bike tomorrow.”
Abraham ended the day down in 21st on a 2m06.709s, the crash proving to be an inconvenience not needed as he had been struggling through the day’s two 45-minutes sessions and was keen to try a few set-up changes on his time attack.
“It is a shame, because this track is really difficult and this morning I was not really happy with the bike but we made a big step for the afternoon.
“We had a couple of things to try that were really important and we didn’t get to set a good lap on the soft tyre.
“I am annoyed because if you make a mistake and crash you at least learn something. This one was completely useless.”
Comments.
Loading comments…