Espargaro "destroyed" by excessive pain during Austrian GP

Aleix Espargaro admitted that he was completely "destroyed" three-quarters into last weekend's Austrian GP, saying it was "impossible to finish" with his recently-fractured finger.

Aleix Espargaro, Team Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP

Espargaro fell from his Suzuki at Turn 8 during the second practice session at the Red Bull Ring last Friday, breaking his finger.

Although the Spaniard was cleared after a trip to the medical centre, and took painkillers as per doctor’s prescription, he later revealed how hard it became to reach the chequered flag.

“Yeah, I used a harder [painkiller] last weekend,’’ he said. “Actually on Saturday after qualifying I immediately went to sleep for two hours because I was really tired, destroyed. But was not enough in the race.

“On Saturday, I was happy, I was able to do five/six laps in a row with not a lot of pain, but in the race after 20 laps I was destroyed,’’ he added.

Still recovering from injury

With the Brno round immediately following the Austrian GP, Espargaro is yet to fully recover from his accident, which resulted in a twin fracture and a damaged ligament in the third finger of his left hand.

“A little bit better,’’ he said when asked about his present condition. ”They put me in a cast just to give a three-day rest to the finger and they took it off yesterday night.

“But three days is not an unbelievable time to improve.

“The two fractures are still there and also the ligament is quite damaged. I had three days off and we'll see if it's a little bit better."

Struggle under acceleration

Espargaro admits that he is likely to struggle under acceleration, during which riders are required to be very aggressive.

The 27-year-old, however, is likely to have an easier time than in Austria, with the Red Bull Ring characterised by its long straights and long periods of acceleration.

"We don't use a clutch so much in MotoGP. If this were Moto2, for sure I wouldn't be able to ride, because impossible to do this all the time," he explained.

"But the problem also is the MotoGP acceleration is unbelievable, so you need to be very aggressive on the handlebar every time on every acceleration, so I suffer a lot in the race, was impossible to finish [in Spielberg]. We'll see here."