Bautista to sit Le Mans out

Despite his best efforts to ride through the pain barrier at this weekend’s Monster Energy Grand Prix de France at Le Mans, Álvaro Bautista will not take part in Sunday’s race.

The decision was made by the rider and team on Saturday following the second practice session, in which the MotoGP rookie suffered a slow speed high side crash. Bautista is currently in the process of recovering from a broken collarbone, on which he had surgery eight days ago, and the 25 year-old landed on his injured side in the fall this morning.

“I knew that this weekend would be difficult for me but after the operation I have tried very hard to ride here,” Bautista told motogp.com. “Yesterday (Friday) I felt a lot of pain and it was difficult to ride. Today I was very confident because Doctor (Claudio) Costa in the Clinica Mobile gave me an injection, and I thought I could be better.”

Bautista continued: “But then I crashed at the beginning of the session and landed on my left side, and now I feel a little more pain so I prefer to not ride for this race, and to recover for the next one.”

The Rizla Suzuki team will not replace Bautista with a substitute rider, leaving Loris Capirossi to carry their challenge in the third round. Bautista will return to Spain for further treatment and to recuperate, to ensure he is in better shape for the next round at Mugello in a fortnight.