Raúl Fernández Cleared to Race in Qatar: “I’ll Still Have to Use Another Finger to Brake”

Raúl Fernández passed Thursday’s medical examination and will be able to take part in the Qatar Grand Prix, but he will race at Lusail with his right hand still far from fully recovered.

The Trackhouse rider explained that he will have to keep relying on a different finger than usual for braking, and that he will need to adjust his riding style session by session. After sitting out Sepang, the Spaniard wants to give it a try, but without pushing harder than necessary. His priority is safety: he said that a crash should not make the injury worse.

It all began in the Indonesian GP Sprint, when Fernández made contact with fellow brand rider Marco Bezzecchi, leaving him with two fractured fingers. Despite the pain, the Aprilia rider managed to finish second at Mandalika on Sunday, behind Bezzecchi himself.

The following weeks were much more difficult. At Phillip Island, he retired from the Sprint after 10 of the scheduled 13 laps, while the feature race was cancelled due to bad weather. In Malaysia, he tried to ride in FP1, but the tissue around the fracture had become inflamed and he had to withdraw from the rest of the weekend.

After Sepang, the 26-year-old returned home to Andorra to work with his physiotherapist and use equipment that helped speed up his recovery. "I think we did a good job. Going home was the right decision", he said. The trade-off was a constant stream of flights: almost a full day of travel on the way there, four or five days of recovery, then an overnight flight to Doha the day before. "At this point, I don’t think I even know where I am", he admitted with a smile, also describing the roughly two and a half hours a day he spent in the hyperbaric chamber in front of the television.

The situation, however, remains delicate. "It’s not perfect yet, but riding is safer. If I crash, the injury won’t get worse. That’s the most important thing for me. After that, we’ll have to conserve a lot of energy. I think I’ll still have to use a different finger for braking. I also need a little time to adjust my riding style".

He also has unfinished business at the Qatari circuit. Fernández has never scored points in a MotoGP feature race in Qatar, yet he likes the track. "I want to take it session by session, and then we’ll see. I think we have another great opportunity here; Qatar is a circuit I really enjoy racing at. But I’ve never achieved a good result. So maybe it’s time to change the story a little".

With a competitive RS-GP, there is potential to turn things around. From Friday, the real test will be his right hand: the first sessions will show how hard the Spaniard can push on a track where braking is crucial.

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