Pol Espargaro has taken to social media to speak for the first time publicly since his crash in practice at the Portuguese MotoGP at the end of March.
Espargaro posted two videos on his official Instagram account, one in his native Spanish and another in English, in which he detailed his injuries, how his recovery is going, and his desire to get back to racing in MotoGP.
Espargaro’s injuries include a broken jaw and fractures in his vertebrae and ribs. In the video, Espargaro explained that it is the vertebrae that he is being most careful about. “The fractures on my back are the ones that the doctors are checking a little bit deeply.
“What happens when you play with these kinds of injuries in the vertebrae you need to be really careful, because as soon as the vertebrae are injured then it is super easy to injure your spinal cord.”
Espargaro was keen to point out his enthusiasm for returning to racing. “We are working with the doctors [...] to come back as fast as possible, but first of all I need to come back healthy, but I’m the first one that wants to come back on the bike, especially after the results of Jerez. [KTM] is working huge and the bike is a rocket right now, and I’m looking forward [to getting back on the bike].”
Espargaro sustained his injuries in Practice 2 at the season-opening Portuguese Grand Prix, which was set to be his competitive debut for the Tech3 GasGas Factory Racing team on his return to KTM machinery following a difficult two years with Honda.
As Espargaro noted in his video, the KTM RC16 is looking like one of the best bikes on the MotoGP grid at the moment, following the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing squad taking four podiums from the Sprint and Grand Prix in Jerez at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
It is still not confirmed when Espargaro will return, but the month-long break after the upcoming French Grand Prix at Le Mans, and before the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello which follows it, means there is a possibility that there will not be too many more races before the #44 is back in action.
Currently, and since the Grand Prix of the Americas last month, Espargaro has been replaced by KTM MotoGP test rider Jonas Folger, who finished 12th and 17th in Austin and Jerez, respectively.
