FRANCESCO Bagnaia has spoken while leaving hospital following his shocking early exit from the Catalan MotoGP round.
The world held its breath for the Italian champion, as he spectacularly high-sided his bike in the opening lap, landing in front of the KTM of Brad Binder who could do nothing to avoid hitting the factory Ducati star.
The crash, and the resulting hit from the KTM rider, had onlookers fearing the worst, although it quickly became clear that Bagnaia was conscious although clearing in pain after the crash. After the crash, he was transferred to a nearby hospital, where more thorough checks miraculously diagnosed no serious breaks or fractures although he did suffer from "multiple contusions".
Leaving the hospital, Bagnaia took the time to answer some questions about the crash and also gave an idea of when he plans to return to action.
He said: “I had a lot of luck today. I have to be thankful, sometimes you need to have luck.”
On the highside, and what he thought had happened, it seems the Ducati rider is still in the dark about what went wrong. “I don’t know [what happened]. I had very low grip on the warm-up lap, and I just took a very big hit. It was not a normal highside.
“It’s very hard to understand what happened at the moment. For sure, it wasn’t a normal crash. The rear grip that I had in the warm-up lap wasn’t normal.”
Amazingly, considering the size of the highside and how close he came to landing some serious injuries from the hit with from Binder, Pecco is already aiming to be back on the bike for the next round at Misano this weekend. “We’ll do everything we can to be in Misano, and to do well,” he said.
