Fabio Quartararo will undergo further assessment before returning to action at Phillip Island following his huge crash on Friday morning.
The 2019 Rookie of the Year suffered a highside at turn six and was thrown awkwardly from his bike. The Petronas Yamaha rider quickly reached for his lower left leg after he hit the deck.
Quartararo was taken to the medical centre at the circuit. X-rays fortunately showed that there were no fractures. However, the 20-year-old was treated for a haematoma to his left ankle. The Frenchman was unable to compete in Free Practice 2, or the additional tyre test.
Quartararo is hopeful of returning to action tomorrow, and is remaining positive. He said:
“Even though I wanted to ride today in FP2, I have quite a lot of pain in my ankle and I have to go back to the medical centre for another examination in the morning. It wasn’t a nice crash. Nothing is broken though, and I’ll try to ride again tomorrow. If we can, that’ll be good but if we can’t, we won’t take any risks. I still don’t have a lot of experience in wet conditions, but when you crash you learn from it and there’s a lot to take from this one.
“It looks like tomorrow morning will be wet and that may mean we have to go to Q1 for the first time, but that’s just another opportunity for us to understand something new!”
Quartararo was seventh on the timing sheets before his crash and may have been able to challenge eventual pacesetter, Maverick Viñales in the afternoon session.
The Frenchman currently sits sixth in the championship standings, just ahead of Valentino Rossi.
