Fabrizio steps it up despite foot agony

Michel Fabrizio is just three points adrift of a top five position in the overall World Superbike Championship standings after claiming a pair of fourth place finishes at Brno, despite battling excruciating pain in his foot.

The Italian has been suffering with a cyst between the toes on his right foot through the weekend, but while Fabrizio was forced to take a pain-killing injection before the races, he struggled to put pressure on the right foot-peg.

Despite this, the Suzuki Alstare rider enjoyed a competitive day of racing, finishing just off the podium in fourth position for both races, results that leave him poised to crack the top five in the overall standings.

"I am happy to get two fourth places today considering all things," he said. "I have raced here before with a broken collarbone, but that pain was nothing like my right foot today. Every time I pushed down hard on the right foot-peg I was in agony, and, as this circuit is a clockwise one, there are a lot of right turns. I couldn't push as hard as normal in the right-handers and that prevented me from going any quicker.

"I was happy with my bike set-up and enjoyed the races - apart from the pain of course. I used the same bike and tyres for both races and the only thing we did was a small adjustment to improve the grip. The grip was better in the second race, but once the front three had pulled out a gap, I found it difficult to catch them. But all-in-all, I'm pretty happy with my results today."

Fabrizio is currently seventh overall, level on points with Leon Camier and three points fifth place Leon Haslam.