Alvaro Bautista breaks femur in Qatar FP3 practice

We won’t be following Alvaro Bautista in this weekend’s Qatar GP.
The sole Suzuki rider had a massive highside during the third free practice session at turn 15 and was stretchered out, now the unfortunate news coming for Losail is that Bautista has fractured his left femur and obviously has been ruled out of the race.

The Spaniard was transferred to the Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha after being visited by the Clinica Mobile where he is undergoing further tests, but it seems that his femur will have to be pinned, but a decision whether it will be done in Qatar or Spain is still being evaluated.

The grid will now see only 16 riders, but Rizla Suzuki had a back-up plan with John Hopkins as a reserve rider (he rode the GSV-R for a promo movie last Saturday in Qatar), just for these types of incidents, so we could see the Anglo American on track, but Rizla Suzuki will have only a few hours to decide whether Hopkins, who is riding for Crescent Suzuki in BSB this season, will be up to par for qualifying.

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