Nakagami: My hand was trapped under the handlebar

Takaaki Nakagami escaped fractures in his massive Friday practice accident at the German MotoGP but remains concerned about the condition of his right hand.

Peter McLaren

16 Jun 2023

Takaaki Nakagami crash, MotoGP, German MotoGP, 16 June

The LCR Honda rider missed three races last season after injuring the hand when he tangled with Marc Marquez at Aragon.

That same hand became trapped under the handlebar when Nakagami slid off at highspeed through the Waterfall corner on Friday, with his RC213V then being heavily damaged as it cartwheeled through the air.

“I’m okay. Not 100%, but we did an X-ray and there's no fracture,” Nakagami said. “So this is really, really good news. But as you know last season I did a couple of times surgery on the fingers and unfortunately when I lose the front at Turn 11 my hand was under the handlebar.

“A big impact and a bit of sharp pain at that moment, but looks from outside that it's OK. A little bit [inflamed], but I need to be really careful because I don't want to get the injury even worse.

“So at the moment I cannot say for tomorrow, but I will try to recover and be ready for tomorrow's session. But depends how I feel tomorrow morning.”

Nakagami, who was using the new Kalex chassis for the first time on Friday, explained that the medium front tyre was not the best choice in the conditions.

“Before the crash, already the right side a little bit tricky. And then the next lap I was, even going slowly, but I just lose the front.

“I cannot say that it was because of the bike. It was like a typical [Turn 11 accident] Just the right side was a bit too low temperature and lose the front. So now the mechanics try to build up again the bike.

“I mean, chassis was fine, so this was good news. So at least we can prepare the same as this morning, with one Kalex chassis, one my standard.”

With rain spots also interrupting practice, Nakagami isn’t yet sure which chassis he will race with in the Saturday afternoon sprint.

“We couldn't make many laps. So still I cannot decide, which one is good or not,” he said.

“The first impression was not a big positive feeling for me. And so still we need to find a balance, because today we are really bad feeling in the front and also the rear grip was terrible.

“As you can see with Marc, the bike is always moving. It was the same feeling [for me]. So we will try to find a solution and a little bit better performance tomorrow.”

Marquez was 14th quickest, after a scary collision with Johann Zarco, with Nakagami 18th.