After just three laps this morning in the second pre-season test at Sepang, Cardion AB rider Karel Abraham had to stop and now has decided to return home as the injury that he picked during the Jerez private test won’t allow him to ride.
Luckily Ducati brought along test rider Franco Battaini as he took over testing duties, dividing his time on Abraham’s GP12 satellite bike and Nicky Hayden’s GP12 factory machine (Hayden rested his shoulder in the afternoon).
The Czech team has elected to stay in Sepang and hopes that Battaini can give them a hand in testing, as he uses the same set-up as Abraham and can give them useful data.
“It’s a shame because we lost a lot of time that we could spend by working on the bike,” said Abraham.
But it doesn’t make any sense to continue with such a pain and the chance that the injury would heal during the next two days is quite small.
Now I’m heading back to the Czech Republic.
The crash at Jerez was unlucky.
There was an oil spill on the track and the bike slipped on it.
The crash was very hard, the bike even caught fire.
Most of the problems causes me the scapula.
I have undergone some tests in a hospital in Brno after I returned from Jerez and there is a possibility that it’s fractured.
There are three weeks before the final pre-season test and I know that I have to be fit as soon as possible and continue in the training.
We lost a lot of time and now we have only a few days before the first race in Qatar to minimize the gap between us and the other riders.
“
