Pol Espargaró suffered a terrible accident on Friday during the second official practice session at the Portuguese GP, the scene of the inaugural MotoGP World Championship 2023. Uphill at turn 10 of the Portimao circuit, he hit very hard, first on the ground and then on the barriers of the Portuguese route. Late that night, after being rushed to the hospital in Faro, the Algarve capital, by medical helicopter, doctors diagnosed a fractured jaw and vertebrae and a severe contusion of the lungs.
After more than half an hour with no concrete information about his incident and an atmosphere of great concern, Dr. Ángel Charte, the event’s medical director, presented the rider’s initial diagnosis from the circuit clinic: “He had a violent fall, with a polytraumatic contusion that must be seen, affecting the entire spine, back, lumbar spine and sacrum . At a cervical level it’s fine, and at a neurological level too. He never lost consciousness and did not indicate that we had to intubate him. It is true that he has a severely contused lung.”
When the pilot went to the medical center, Charte was moderately optimistic about his situation. “He’s conscious, oriented, responding perfectly. He’s a little sedated from the analgesia. He moves everything and there is no need to fear paraplegia. In principle, there are no major concerns, but we have to wait for the complementary tests,” he commented.
The serious accident involving the Espargaró brothers’ little one ended the second official training session of the season that had just started just under 14 minutes before the end. It was a day of many crashes that left some surprises in its wake, such as Jack Miller’s first place finish on the back of a KTM. The Australian broke the Pecco Bagnaia course record set a few weeks ago in the final pre-season test. Marc Márquez and the rest of the Hondas confirmed their lack of pace by being eliminated from the top ten.
The pilots, outraged by the lack of security
The incident caused great anger among the pilots at the end of the day. “It was a serious failure because it’s dangerous,” commented Jorge Martín, who had already sustained a serious injury on the same stage two years ago, into the DAZN microphones. The situation was discussed on Friday afternoon in the security commission, in which the entire network takes part. “If Pol hit the tires, you have to do an airlock tomorrow, not next year,” said Marc Marquez. “Beating against it is like beating against a wall,” added his partner Joan Mir.
Bagnaia, who picked up the gravel from one of the outruns after a fall last year to complain to race officials about his size, was one of the most outspoken in his statements: “I’m very angry about the lack of safety on the track. We’ve been asking about the same things for four years, but we still haven’t found any solutions.’ Thank charter. “Having Ángel here drives me crazy, it gives us life. The way he takes care of us pilots, the calm he transmits to you.”