MotoGP: Barbera in surgery for broken collarbone

Avintia Ducati rider Hector Barbera is set to undergo surgery for a broken collarbone, after crashing at Valencia yesterday during a training session. The damage sustained to his left collarbone means that he’ll undergo surgery today in Barcelona.

He’ll travel to the usual location for MotoGP racers, the Hospital Universitari Dexeus, where Doctor Xavier Mir will plate the broken bone. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be fit in time to ride at next weekend’s final pre-season test in Qatar.

The Spaniard has had a good pre-season so far, coming away from the second test last month in Phillip Island fifteenth overall and pleased with the progress he’s making on the GP16 Ducati machines.

“The most positive after three days is that today we finally found the way. With two hours to go we touched the key and I began to feel good on the bike and I was faster, but the best is that my feeling is back. I have been very overwhelmed because this happened in Malaysia and every time since I got on this bike. We have finally found the solution!

“I started to feel good straight away, having fun riding the bike, but this was only for two hours and in the end we didn’t have any more tyres to try a flying lap. At the end I was able to improve a lot with a seven-lap-tyre, and I think that with fresh tyres it was possible to lap in 29 lows. So in the end we are happy.”

The Avintia team of Barbera and Frenchman Loris Baz will travel to Andorra before they head to Qatar, though, with the team launching their new machines next Monday in the principality.