After spending the off season recovering from a serious wrist injury Aspar Ducati rider Eugene Laverty has escaped serious injury after crashing on the opening day of the 2016 MotoGP preseason test at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia
Laverty was denied the opportunity to get fully to grips with his new Ducati, however, the Irishman's day coming to a premature end on his 27th lap, when a mechanical problem caused him to crash in turn four. Initial medical examination indicated a possible fracture in his hand, which was thankfully ruled out following an X-ray.
"We've been for the X-ray and thankfully there is no fracture, just some tissue and ligament damage, which is a relief," Laverty explained.
"It's just unbelievable that after spending the last couple of months recovering from a broken wrist we have this on the first day of the first test! It seems we had a mechanical problem and I had to jump off the bike under braking into turn four.
"It was a scary moment but quite lucky really because it could have been much worse. The bike went straight into the tyre wall at well over 100km/h so that wasn't nice to see - I never like to see a bike destroyed! Overall it wasn't a great day because we spent the morning with some electronic problems, the throttle stuck open and I was lucky not to crash on that occasion too.
"It meant the guys had to check things over and we lost some track time. Now I have to wait and see how the hand is tomorrow. Obviously I want to get back out there as soon as possible but we'll have to wait and see when that is," he concluded.
