MotoGP: Baz and Espargaro escape serious injury

Both Loris Baz and Pol Espargaró have been lucky to escape serious injury after a huge fight-lap collision at the British Grand Prix that brought out the red flags.

And while Baz looked initially to be the worst-off of the pair at the side of the track, it was potentially the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider who was in greater danger, having been hit by both his own bike and Baz’s Avintia Ducati as the pair tumbled.

“In the first lap, I felt a strong impact from behind me at the first corner. I started to roll on the floor and then both my bike and Loris’ bike hit me. On one hand, I have to say that this incident was really bad luck, but then again, to be completely honest, the past few races have not gone exactly to plan.

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“On the other hand, I have to be pleased that nothing worse happened. I must admit that I am feeling a lot of pain all over, and especially in my right tibia but this is not something that I am overly worried about and I am sure that with some relaxation and massages, I will be fine. I’m always a bit nervous when I start from quite far back on the grid because it’s dangerous and the accident today confirmed this.”

Baz, who was knocked unconscious in the crash, was also lucky to escape relatively unscathed – especially after damaging the ankle he badly broke when Alvaro Bautista knocked him off earlier in the season.

When I arrived at the second turn, I was running parallel with Pol and just about to overtake him, but then the guys in front of us braked very early, especially Petrucci. I pulled over to the right a bit in order to avoid a collision, but Pol entered the turn from the outside and we touched. After banging into him, I don’t remember a lot of what happened. I woke just before getting into the ambulance.

“I don’t remember the crash itself, but the consequences could have obviously been worse because it looks pretty bad. I have a sprain in the foot that I was operated on, but they did an X-ray and there is nothing broken, even though it hurts when I put pressure on the foot.

“The most important thing is that Pol, who also doesn’t have any fractures, and myself are all right. It was a race incident that shouldn’t have happened, but this corner is quite narrow. I don’t think I did anything stupid!”

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