The Jerez medical center has been a busy place for the past hour, with riders coming and going for their medical assessments.
Cal Crutchlow, Marc Marquez, and Alex Rins all had to pass a fitness test before being given the all clear to test. All three have been declared fit, and will attempt to ride tomorrow, to assess their fitness on the bike.
Cal Crutchlow fractured his left scaphoid in a crash during Sunday warm up at Jerez last week, and had the scaphoid pinned in place.
Although the pinned scaphoid will be painful, he should not have too many problems riding, especially as the injury is to his left hand, rather than his right.
Jerez is a clockwise circuit with a lot of right hand corners, and all the hard braking at the circuit is done on the right.
Alex Rins had dislocated his right shoulder and cracked his humerus in a heavy fall at Turn 11 during qualifying. Rins did not need surgery, and has been undergoing intensive therapy to be ready for Jerez.
The Suzuki Ecstar rider did sustain some ligament damage, and that will determine how capable his of riding.
Marc Marquez suffered a dislocated fracture of the humerus in his right upper arm, when he crashed during the race and had the front wheel of his Repsol Honda RC213V hit his arm as he and his bike entered the gravel on the exit of Turn 3.
At first, doctors feared he had suffered nerve damage, but that proved not to be the case. Marquez had surgery to put the bone back into place and to insert a titanium plate to fix the bone on Tuesday, and decided on Wednesday night to try to ride.
Though the doctors passed him medically fit to race – a judgment that he has enough strength in the arm to control the bike sufficiently that he is not a danger to his fellow competitors – actually riding at the track will be tough.
Jerez asks a lot of the right side of a rider’s body, and will place a lot of stress on Marquez’ injured right arm.
The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as Rins, Crutchlow, and Marquez all get on their bikes on Friday morning for FP1.
Photo: LCR Honda
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