Injuries continue to be a key factor in the 2023 MotoGP season. It should be remembered that, with next weekend’s Valencia Grand Prix closing the season, a full event with all the starting drivers has not yet been held. And that seems unlikely to happen in Spain, after Aleix Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira were hurt in a crash in the early stages of Saturday’s Sprint in Qatar.
After the start and the first corners, the Spaniard and the Portuguese were involved in a multiple accident. A touch from Oliveira caused Aleix to fly off his Aprilia and fall abruptly to the ground. The accident also involved Enea Bastianini, who has already had to deal with bad luck too many times this year, having missed 8 GPs due to injury.
Once the race was over, two injuries were confirmed for both drivers. On the one hand, Oliveira was declared “unfit”, as confirmed by the championship itself, after he was found to have fractured his right shoulder blade. His team, RNF Racing, added that he was going to hospital for further tests and would therefore miss his media commitments.
Aleix Espargaro instead suffered a small fracture to the head of his left fibula, after being seen crawling and having difficulty walking after the accident. In the case of the Catalan, his participation in Sunday’s race is not ruled out, as he will have to undergo a check-up by the MotoGP medical team before the Warm-Up. In the case of Bastianini, who nevertheless completed the race, no injuries were confirmed in the first instance.
Aleix Espargaro experienced a rather complicated Saturday, marked by the episode with Franco Morbidelli in the last free practice session before qualifying. After some questionable maneuvers on the track, the Spaniard responded to the Italian by giving him a rather violent slap on the helmet. The episode was investigated by the FIM college of commissioners, who imposed a penalty of six positions on the grid and a fine of 10,000 euros.
In this regard, it should be noted that the #41 still has to serve the six-place penalty, as it has to be paid in the long race. However, a little mystery has arisen on this one. Just as happened with Marc Marquez in Portimao, in fact, the commissioners specifically indicated the Qatar race as the one in which Aleix will have to serve his sentence. Under normal conditions, in the event of an absence tomorrow, the penalty would be postponed to the next GP, as the correct indication provides, but the Honda rider managed to avoid his thanks to an identical formal error. It remains to be seen whether Aprilia will eventually appeal this matter or not.
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