Fabio Quartararo expects to have surgery after “further displacing” a fractured toe in a Dutch TT MotoGP crash that also left him with a twisted elbow.
The 2021 champion, who recorded only his second top-three race finish of 2023 so far in Saturday’s sprint at Assen, crashed out early in Sunday’s grand prix while running in 12th place.
Tucking the front through Ruskenhoek, Quartararo was then hit by fellow Frenchman Johann Zarco, who was left with no time at all to avoid the accident – although it is not fully clear whether Zarco’s Pramac Ducati collided with Quartararo, the Yamaha M1 or both.
The French duo are OUT! 😱
Friendly fire between @FabioQ20 and @JohannZarco1! 🥺#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/n8ni4ODR7j
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 25, 2023
In any case, Quartararo limped away from the site of the crash and headed to the medical centre.
And, having already fractured a big toe in a fall while running in Amsterdam in the lead-up to the weekend, Quartararo was said to have further exacerbated said fracture.
In a subsequent media appearance, he also revealed he “twisted my elbow”.
“This is not going to be so long,” he said of the elbow’s recovery. “The foot, I will have to check, normally I will have to make surgery on the toe. I will be a few weeks a little bit in pain.”
He was passed unfit by MotoGP’s medical staff, so will undergo a check-up ahead of the post-summer break British Grand Prix at Silverstone in early August – for which he expects to be in good condition.
“I don’t know if I could race [right] now – if the race is now, I think I would take a rest. Right now is painful I would say,” he said – but he stressed there was “one and a half” months to recover.
For his part, Zarco said he was unhurt, although he wants “to see my right hand, if it will get big or not, because it’s still some pain around the fingers”.
“I was surprised to see Fabio struggling a lot,” he said. “So I tried to overtake him in Turn 1, but he crossed the line, and then his bike was moving a lot in Turn 6, so I prepared to be quite fast in Turn 7 and then overtake him in Turn 8.
“But in the moment I was fast, he lost the front. And I was so close to him, I couldn’t avoid the bike and we crashed pretty fast.”
The mistake, Quartararo said, had been conditioned by his awful start from fourth on the grid.
“I made a mistake on the start, sometimes when you want to do it too perfectly… I didn’t want to make it normal, I wanted to make it perfect and getting too close to perfect I made it totally bad.
“The way I released the clutch with the throttle, I released a little bit too fast, then I had wheelie.
“Let’s say, forgetting what I have on my left side of the body, it’s a positive weekend.
“Great qualifying, great sprint race, great speed. I will take it like a positive weekend. Even if I’m injured, I feel like I rode at my best.”
