Lorenzo injured in first practice in China

Lorenzo goes flying over his bike in a rather nasty spill in Shanghai Friday

MotoGP

He starred in Qatar, reigned in Spain and thrilled in Estoril, but Jorge Lorenzo’s visit to China has got off to an inauspicious start. The current MotoGP World Championship leader suffered a huge highside in the second half of the opening practice session, and is currently being examined at the city’s Huashan hospital.

The exact extent of his injuries will not be known until after an x-ray is undertaken, but the Clinica Mobile believe that the Spaniard has fractured his right ankle, cut the heel of the same foot and has possible damage to the left ankle. The Spaniard also appears to have suffered an abrasion to his left knee.

`I don't think Jorge will be able to ride this afternoon because he has pain in both ankles and needs a further x-ray at the hospital, so it will take time to get there and back and to do the tests,´ said Daniele Romagnoli, Lorenzo’s Team Manager, after talking with the Clinica Mobile.

`Dr Costa wants to be absolutely sure about the injuries as it looks like there could be possible small fractures in both ankles. The knee injury is not too serious, just a bit of a cut.'

The teams ended today with the second round of practice without Lorenzo and he will not take to the track until tomorrow morning at 10:00am (local time), giving Lorenzo nearly 24 hours to rest.