VIDEO: ‘Banged up’ Brookes baffled by huge crash
"The bike was spinning up a lot and the end result was me being thrown off..."
Josh Brookes has confirmed he is ‘OK’ after his dramatic exit from the opening race of this weekend’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship triple-header at Donington Park.
Starting on pole position, Brookes slipped to third in the opening laps when on lap six a slide from the rear on the exit of the Roberts chicane pitched the Be Wiser Ducati into a high-side and flung the Australian into the air.
Coming down hard, though Brookes was fortunately missed by the close following pack, the impact has left him ‘banged up’.
Even so, Brookes says the crash came after feeling as though something wasn’t ‘quite right’ on the Ducati Panigale V4 R.
“Up until the race, everything had been going well but something didn’t feel quite right from the first lap and I wasn’t able to lap near the times I’d been doing,” he contended. “The bike was spinning up a lot and the end result was me being thrown off. I came down hard so obviously feel a bit banged up but am otherwise ok.
“Prior to that, the bike had been working well and I went as hard as I had to in qualifying and was obviously delighted to get pole ahead of the first race. It wasn’t our day, but we have two more races to make amends.”
Some serious hang time for @JoshBrookes during Race 1 #DoningtonBSB pic.twitter.com/Llmo7zoFZH
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 25, 2019
