MotoGP: Rabat gives condition update after Stowe smash

Avintia Ducati rider Tito Rabat has spoken to the media for the first time since his crash in practice for last week’s cancelled British Grand Prix, taking to the stage in Barcelona’s Dexeus University Hospital alongside MotoGP doctors Ángel Charte, Xavier Mir and Ignacio Ginebreda.

The Spaniard was one of a number of almost-instantaneous fallers at Stowe during a wet session at Silverstone, as riders got caught out by standing water and aquaplaned into the turn. He was struck by Franco Morbidelli’s Marc VDS Honda while in the gravel trap only seconds after falling from his own bike, suffering a badly broken leg in the process.

Not only did he break all three bones in his right leg (including the femur, the body’s largest bone, in three separate places), the fractures were compound, leading t significant blood loss and an increased risk of infection.

However, undergoing surgery at University Hospital Coventry that night, Rabat stunned the paddock by taking his first steps on the leg only 24 hours later. But despite that remarkable return to his feet, he says he’s in no rush to get back on a bike just yet as he listens to his doctor’s advice.

“At Silverstone, we saw how important it is to have the Medical Team in MotoGP and I want to thank all of them for their great work. I also want to thank to those who operated on me in England because they did a great job. I want to return as soon as possible, but I will do what the doctors say.

“The priority is to recover as soon as possible, but in the end, those who rule are them based on the evolution of the leg. The worst of the accident was the pain, which practically has not let me sleep. I never thought about losing my leg, although I saw it twisted like an S when I was laying on the gravel. I lost a lot of blood and I got scared.

“I have learned a lesson and from now on every time I crash again I will look back. At the moment I saw that Rins was warning me to get out of there, I saw Franco’s bike coming very fast towards me. I stood up and the bike hit my leg, otherwise it would have been much worse.”