Raúl Fernández was unable to finish the preseason at Mandalika due to a fall that caused him to hit his head severely on the second day of the test, as a result of which on the last day he partially lost his speed references, which advised to get off the motorcycle.
Since then there has been little information about the rider’s condition, but in the run-up to the Qatar Grand Prix this Thursday, Fernández said he felt fully recovered and eager to get on the bike.
In the two long weeks between that test and his appearance today, the man from Madrid claimed not to have trained on a motorcycle.
“The truth is that I haven’t ridden a lot of motorcycles, to say the least. I didn’t want to ride to be able to get to Qatar with the sensations with which I finished the test, which were very good. We improve day by day and although the results in Indonesia They were not quite the ones we wanted, I am happy”, explained Raúl already from Losail.
“I’ve been at home and physically I’m fine, I’ve been training normally, with the bike and in the gym, as if nothing had happened, and until today everything has gone well, so I don’t think I’ll have any problems”, from face to get on the bike this Friday in FP1.
The Tech3 runner does not believe that the headaches he had in Indonesia after the crash, nor the loss of high-speed references, will be reproduced.
“No, that was a bad blow since he only needed a few days of rest. Now I feel good, I have no problem doing anything. On the plane back I got a little seasick, but on the flight to come here everything was normal , everything went well and I think I’m perfect now”.
A crash in Indonesia that alerts the young rookie to the greater danger that MotoGP entails.
“I’ve already crashed a couple or three times with MotoGP, what I had is a bit of bad luck because of how I entered the gravel when I fell, I don’t think the ground is harder with MotoGP than with Moto2, I also had hard crashes last year, like the one in Misano. Honestly, I think it was just bad luck,” referring to the Mandalika crash.
Going back to the sportier plane, the feeling that KTM left in the pre-season tests is of not being at the level of the main manufacturers in the class, something that, right now, Raúl is not worried about.
“When you give everything and a brand gives everything like KTM is doing, you don’t have to worry, the tests are always deceiving, people go very fast and circuit records are made, but it is also true that there is no pressure of a time trial, of a big prize or not stepping on the green, there is no pressure”.
“I would like to see what will happen in the race, within our part of the box, I am not talking about KTM in general, I think we have done a good job and we know more or less where we can be. I think the homework in this preseason is well done And I don’t want to think further. In the end, the bike we have is the one we have to face the year with, I’m happy with how it works (the KTM), after all, they have only been tests”.
For now, Fernández gives the KTM a margin of confidence.
“If after five or six races we are still far behind or we see that we are always the last brand, which I don’t think is the case, it will be time to start thinking about what solutions there are. But, for now, we have done two tests, the The first cost us a little more and in the second the KTMs were quite competitive”, settled the boy from San Martín de la Vega.
