MotoGP: Takaaki Nakagami ruled out of Thailand Grand Prix

Takaaki Nakagami requires further surgery on his injured finger and will miss this weekend’s MotoGP round in Thailand as a result.

The LCR Honda rider damaged tendons in the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand during the first lap collision with Marc Marquez at Aragon earlier this month. Nakagami underwent surgery to fix the issue the day after the race and was passed fit to race in his home Grand Prix at Motegi last weekend.

Unfortunately, doing so has caused further damage and it was reported over the course of the race weekend that Nakagami’s glove was full of blood after sessions.

The Japanese rider finished the race in 20^th and sustained a torn tendon in his little finger. He’ll undergo surgery this Friday (September 30) and hopes to return for the Australian round at Phillip Island.

Nakagami will be replaced by Tetsuta Nagashima, who made his MotoGP debut at Motegi as a wildcard entry for HRC’s test team. The Moto2 race winner started the race positively, but eventually crashed out.

“First of all, I wish Taka well and I hope that he can come back as soon as possible,” Nagashima said. “I will try to do my best in his place for the LCR Honda IDEMITSU Team and I will try to enjoy the racing.

“I’m looking forward to this weekend’s event. I really had a lot of fun at the Japanese GP, and I learned quite a lot. So, this weekend, I want to continue to do the same because I still have to learn a lot of things with the MotoGP bike.”

Joan Mir will also miss this weekend’s race as he continues to recover from a broken ankle. He’ll be replaced at Suzuki be the returning Danilo Petrucci, who returns to the paddock after securing second in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.