Team Alstare Suzuki rider Michel Fabrizio goes to the Motorland Aragon World Superbike seventh round in Spain this weekend battered and bruised but fortunately without any broken bones following last week’s high-side in Misano.
At the time, he was diagnosed with a suspected fracture to his right scaphoid, but a visit to his specialist this week revealed no broken bones. Although this is good news, it remains to be seen how strong his arm will be this coming weekend.
Motorland Aragon is a new addition to the calendar and is a demanding 5.345 kilometre, anti-clockwise track featuring some interesting changes of elevation. Although it is new to the Championship, many of the teams tested there at the end of last season.
Michel Fabrizio:
The good news is that nothing is broken, but obviously I have given my right arm a big knock and it is pretty sore. Because of the pain, I was unable to manage my throttle control in the second race last weekend. Physically, I just couldn’t get on the gas like normal and that prevented me from making a better result. Considering the condition of my right arm and my bad grid position, the result was not so bad.
“This weekend is going to be a tough one, for sure. I will not know how my arm is going to be until I get out in the first practice. We all tested here last year and I remember it being quite a challenging circuit and it is going to give my arm a big workout. There is a very long, back straight, where the fastest bikes will maybe hit 200 mph (321 kph) followed by a lot of braking for the slowest corner on the track. We go from flat-out in sixth gear all the way down to first gear and it is the longest time spent on the brakes anywhere in the series. That’s going to put a lot of pressure on my arms, but I am determined not to let it affect my performance. What I want to do is end Saturday’s Superpole with a good grid position. It’s something that I have not managed so far, but it would be very interesting to see what kind of results I could get, if I started races on the first or second row, instead of somewhere down the grid.”
