Lorenzo suffered unidentified rib fracture at Qatar MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo has undergone further medical checks which have confirmed the Repsol Honda rider sustained a fissure to the first rib during his heavy FP3 crash at the Qatar MotoGP.

The Spanish rider was forced to miss effectively all of FP3 on Saturday when he suffer a nasty high-side off at the start of the session at the Losail International Circuit. Lorenzo was given the all-clear by the medical team at the track, allowing him to compete in FP4, qualifying and the race, but the Spaniard continued to complain of pain in his back and shoulder after finishing in 13th place on his Repsol Honda debut.

Having undergone further medical checks back in Europe, Lorenzo’s doctors confirmed he had suffered a fissure, essentially a crack fracture, to his top rib on his right side.

While the injury isn’t expected to rule out the rider from the next round in Argentina having already competed in Qatar, the Repsol Honda rider has the limited timeframe of three weeks to recover for the second round at Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo on March 29-31.

It marks the latest injury on a long list of knocks for Lorenzo who hasn’t competed fully fit since last year’s San Marino round over six months ago.

Lorenzo sustained a broken toe in his first-corner crash at the Aragon MotoGP last year before being ruled out of the following four rounds after a nasty high-side off during practice in Thailand.

The five-time world champion returned to action at the 2018 finale for his last Ducati outing and completed winter testing still carrying injuries.

Lorenzo’s bad luck with injuries continued in January when he broke the scaphoid in his left wrist while training which forced him to miss the Sepang pre-season test last month.