Heroic return ends horribly for Barbera with heavy crash and injured vertebrae

It was an unlucky return for Héctor Barberà who crashed out at turn sixteen after a vicious highside during the first session of free practice. After his absence of two weeks ago at the Laguna Seca GP, the Spaniard rider will be obliged to renounce from the Indy GP as well, due to a small fracture of his dorsal vertebrae 6, as the doctors who visited him at the Indianapolis Methodist Hospital stated yesterday in the afternoon after several radiographic checks.

Luckily the Spaniard did not suffer major injuries, but he will not able to ride for another three weeks.

Héctor Barberà “I feel really sorry. I worked hard in the past few weeks in order to be able to quickly recover the use of my right leg, broken during a training incident, and to get back on my Ducati as soon as possible. I was allowed to ride, but after a few laps it was all over already. I was scared, I felt a huge pain in my back after the crash: it was like a flashback to Motegi 2008 when I had broken three vertebrae, one of which was number 6, and I was bedridden for four months. Fortunately, this time the damage is not that bad. I must have a rest, but I won’t miss the Misano round!”

Source: Pramac Racing Press Release