In the afternoon I got going pretty quickly and was in the top 15 for most of the session. With about 12 minutes to go I did a 1.43.1 which was good enough for 14th and I was sure with some fresh rubber on the rear I could get into the 42s. I came in the box with 8 minutes to go and put a new rear tyre on which I’d be able to get 2 laps on.
My first lap was on course for a mid 43 and wasn’t very good so I was hoping to get a good exit from the long, fast right hander onto the main straight to start off a good last lap. Just as I started to roll on the gas a bit harder the rear stepped sideways and before I knew it I was airborne over the bars.
It let go very quick and was quite a hard crash in just about the same place as I crashed last year but this time, thank god, it hurt less. I could feel my foot was hurting and when I got up I realised it was my ankle. I also banged my hip as usual and bashed a couple of fingers. I went to the Clinica Mobile and after looking at my ankle they said I had stretched the ligaments on the outside of it, as it was swollen.
I ended up 15th on the grid which I was pretty happy with. It doesn’t sound very good to me - and probably doesn’t sound much good to anybody else - but with the quality of the field this year it’s about where I expect to be, somewhere in the first 4 rows.
Early Sunday morning I was awake form 1am-2.30am with a throbbing ankle. The skies were grey and the ground wet when we left our hotel in the morning. As soon as I got to the circuit I went to the Clinica Mobile to see what I could get to ease the ankle stiffness. They gave me one painkiller and 7 small injections where the swelling was, which almost instantly eased the pain.
