The 2023 MotoGP World Championship has started with a big scare in Portimão. Pol Espargaró suffered a spectacular accident at the end of the second free practice and had to be evacuated by helicopter to the Faro hospital for a thorough check-up. According to the first examination at the Algarve circuit, the man from Granollers suffered “severe multiple trauma to the spine and pulmonary contusion”, but he was out of danger and without spinal cord injuries, as confirmed by the MotoGP medical team.
The accident occurred with 14 minutes to go before the end of the second practice session, when the drivers pushed to achieve their best times and be able to pass the qualifying sieve. Pol was out of the top 10 when he lost control of his Gas Gas going through turn 10 of the Portimão slide. He slid across the tarmac, circled the gravel loophole, and ended up hitting the guardrail. The accident led to the interruption of training with a red flag for more than 10 minutes to be able to assist the Catalan rider.
The MotoGP medical teams treated the rider at the foot of the track and transferred him by ambulance to the circuit’s mobile clinic. There he was examined by Dr. Ángel Charte, MotoGP medical director, who ruled out serious injuries, according to what he explained.
“Pol Espargaró had a high-energy fall, with a major polytraumatic contusion at the level of the dorso-lumbo-sacral spine. At the cervical level he is perfectly fine. Neurologically he is fine, he has not lost consciousness at any time. He has not specified that we had to intubate him. But he has a severe pulmonary contusion that will have to be checked again, “explained Dr. Charte on the Portuguese circuit.
“Pol is conscious, oriented, responds perfectly, he is a little sedated by the painkillers we have given him, but he is fine. The examinations that we have done on the track and in the medical center are stable. The neurological examination is perfectly normal: he moves the feet, the legs, the arms, it moves everything… You don’t have to have any spinal cord injury”, detailed Dr. Charte, who referred to the “complementary tests” that they had to do at the Faro hospital.
The first day of World Cup practice left a very tight outlook in MotoGP, with up to 14 riders (out of 22) shrunk by just 7 tenths. An enormous equality that only Jack Miller broke, taking the best time with a new track record and separating Maverick Viñales and his Aprilia.
The news, not least news for foreseeable, was the bad position of Marc Márquez, 14th, the same as in the pre-season tests, 7 tenths behind Miller. If the Catalan came to lead the table it was a mere mirage, since as soon as the minutes of truth arrived, the Ducati began to leave him behind. So 93 will have to go through Q1 this Saturday.
