Baz, Espargaro escape serious injury
Loris Baz and Pol Espargaro were fortunate to escape serious injury during a huge accident on the opening lap of Sunday's British MotoGP.
The pair made contact on the fast approach to Turn 3, as Baz took evasive action to avoid Danilo Petrucci braking ahead of him.
Riders and bikes were sent bouncing across the grass and back onto the track, with Baz being knocked out. The race was red-flagged and later restarted without either rider.
Pol Espargaro and Loris Baz involved in the first lap accident. #BritishGP #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/L7anBR1rah-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) September 4, 2016
"When I arrived at the second turn, I was running parallel with Pol and just about to overtake him, but then the guys in front of us braked very early, especially Petrucci," Baz explained.
"I pulled over to the right a bit in order to avoid a collision, but Pol entered the turn from the outside and we touched. After banging into him, I don't remember a lot of what happened. I woke just before getting into the ambulance.
"I don't remember the crash itself, but the consequences could have obviously been worse because it looks pretty bad. I have a sprain in the foot that was operated on, but they did an X-ray and I there is nothing broken, even though it hurts when I put pressure on the foot.
"The most important thing is that Pol, who also doesn't have any fractures, and myself are all right. It was a race incident that shouldn't have happened, but this corner is quite narrow. I don't think I did anything stupid!"
On Monday, Baz will have a head scan at the Geneva hospital in Switzerland, to make sure he has no concussion. If all is fine, the Frenchman will be back on track next weekend at Misano.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Espargaro was also deemed okay after medical checks, and intends to be on track at Misano, but admits to being in a lot of pain after being 'hit by both bikes'.
"I felt a strong impact from behind me at the first corner. I started to roll on the floor and then both my bike and Loris' bike hit me," Espargaro said. "On one hand, I have to say that this incident was really bad luck, but then again, to be completely honest, the past few races have not gone exactly to plan. On the other hand, I have to be pleased that nothing worse happened.
"I must admit that I am feeling a lot of pain all over, and especially in my right tibia but this is not something that I am overly worried about and I am sure that with some relaxation and massages, I will be fine. I'm always a bit nervous when I start from quite far back on the grid because it's dangerous and the accident today confirmed this.
"However, I missed the entrance to QP2 by one tenth and I paid a high price in qualifying when it rained which cost me even more in the race today. Having said that, I have to be happy that I am more or less ok after that hard crash and even though we have another GP in the next few days, I will be a lot better in Misano where I am confident that my luck will change and things will be a lot better."
