Michel Fabrizio raced on despite a painful injury to claim a top six finish in race two at Misano. The Alstare Suzuki rider crashed out in race one and suffered a suspected broken right scaphoid in his wrist.
The Italian was among the pacesetters in dry conditions, having gone third quickest in the dry qualifying practice sessions, but his weekend started to go downhill when the rain came for Superpole.
“Actually I feel a bit disappointed this weekend – and not because of my injury really” he added. “The wet weather ruined my Superpole and any chances of a good grid position. I had been third in regular qualifying and then 13th in Superpole and that meant I was way down the grid and needed binoculars to see the lights!”
“In race one, I charged off the line as hard as I could because I didn’t want the leaders to open a big gap straight away, but I pushed a bit too hard and high-sided in turn three, hurting my right arm in the process. I went to the Clinica Mobile and was told that I had probably broken my right scaphoid, but that it would take a day or two to confirm it.”
Despite the diagnosis, Fabrizio attempted to race later in the afternoon and fought his way to sixth, despite being in obvious discomfort.
“I thought that I might as well try and start race two and that’s what I did. I fought my way up and passed quite a few riders and was in about seventh place, I think, when the race was stopped.”
“Race two then became a 14-lap race and although I tried my best, I just didn’t have the strength to keep the throttle at full gas when I wanted to. I lost out a lot on acceleration as a result and that’s what prevented me from progressing further up the field – that and the fact that I ran out of laps. I would have preferred a straight 24-lap race because that would’ve given me time to do lots of overtaking.”
Fabrizio admitted the injury had come at the worst possible time, and believed that he could have challenged for a podium finish. Despite the pain though, he is determined to race in Spain this weekend.
“Without the injury I think I could’ve mounted a podium challenge – even with my grid position. But really, yesterday’s rain ruined everything and today’s crash in race one didn’t help. I will go and see a specialist on Tuesday and further X-rays will be taken. For me, it doesn’t really matter if I have broken my scaphoid or not, because I will be racing at Aragon next weekend for sure. If I have to have some sort of protective cast on my arm to race, then that’s what I’ll do. But one thing is for sure: I will be on track again next weekend.”