Sepang (Malaysia), Oct 29 (IANS) Jorge Martin braces himself for a “really difficult” and “really painful” weekend at the Malaysian Grand Prix as he hopes to keep himself in the title race in the MotoGP World Championship.
Six days after suffering a fractured wrist, Martin will be up on his Aprilia bike for Free Practice 1 on Friday morning after being given the green light.
He will undergo assessment from the MotoGP medical team after FP1, as his chances of appearing in the remainder of the weekend are not confirmed as of now.
Speaking ahead of the Sepang International Circuit race in Malaysia, Martin revealed that he is still not able to even brush his teeth with his fractured right hand but will be looking to try to compete.
“I feel good. For sure, I could be worse; I could be better,” Martin was quoted as saying by a leading motorsport website. “Now we achieved the first step, that is to try to ride and then let’s see my condition, let’s see my feeling, and then we will decide what to do next, if I continue with the GP or not.”
The Aprilia suffered a crash during the Saturday Sprint race in Australia and was ruled out of the Sunday race. He fell 10 points behind in the championship battle as Marc Marquez won the sprint. To Martin’s relief, the Sunday race was cancelled due to bad weather and poor visibility.
He has a non-displaced fracture of the distal radius, but wants to try, as he is very much in the race for the championship with four rounds remaining. “The only thing I know is that my wrist is broken. This is the only thing I know: I will try to ride with a broken wrist, so for sure it will be really difficult; it will be really painful.
“I will try for sure because I’m in the title fight, because otherwise I will be in a house with a cast for one month.
He would be facing a significant challenge this weekend, as he admitted that he is not able to brush his teeth with his right hand as of now. “But the only thing I can do is to try, at least to try. That’s why I’m here and the options I don’t really know, I need to understand, I need to go on track. Let’s see how much it’s a limitation for the riding style.
“It’s the right hand, which is the brake and the throttle. It’s a right-corner circuit. So overall, it doesn’t look great, but let’s see tomorrow. “I still cannot brush my teeth (with the right hand); I do it with the left hand, so I cannot do almost anything, but maybe I can ride.
“I’m not really optimistic, not too pessimistic, because after five days I’m here and I can ride. So it’s already, I think, crazy. I did all the therapies I could during this week to try to be in the best possible condition here, and now let’s see how far I can go.
“I’m just thinking of trying to ride. I don’t think about the championship, I don’t think about Sunday or Saturday, I think about tomorrow, let’s try to ride, then I will move forward with my next step,” he added.
–IANS
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