A broken collarbone kept Oxford rider Bradley Smith out of a Malaysian Moto2 Grand Prix weekend marred by the tragic death of MotoGP racer Marco Simoncelli.
Tech3 Racing Team rider Smith suffered a heavy fall in practice in Sepang and was one of four riders to crash following a brief rain shower at Turn 10. Organisers of the event were later fined €15,000 for not waving the right flags to indicate a wet track at the time of the incident. After an initial examination in the circuit's medical facility, Smith was transferred to the Pusat Perubatan UKM Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur for further checks on left shoulder and chest injuries.
The 20-year-old hopes to be fit for the final round of the season in Valencia on November 6, but has fallen to seventh in the overall rider's standings after missing out this weekend. Thomas Lüthi rode to his first Moto2 win in a red flagged shortened race ahead of Stefan Bradl and Pol Espargaró, with Bradl battling it out at the top of the standings with Marc Marquez, who also missed the race after the same incident that kept Smith off the track, for the overall championship.
Bradley Smith said: “The initial crash was bad enough but then I hit Marquez's bike quite hard and I think this is how I broke my left collarbone and also took a big hit on my chest. I didn't really remember anything, so I had to watch a video replay to understand what happened. I've also got a bruised left lung and that is causing me quite a lot of discomfort. I would have flown home last night if possible but I can't fly for 48 hours, so I'll stick to my initial plan and head back to the UK tomorrow night after the race."
But the result was overshadowed by the death of 24-year-old Italian Honda rider Simoncelli, whose bike veered into the path of Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi, losing his helmet and being hit by both other riders. The race was immediately stopped, but Simoncelli failed to recover from serious trauma to the head, neck and chest.
The death is the first in MotoGP since 2003, when Daijiro Katoh died in the Japanese GP, although his Japanese countryman Shoya Tomizawa was killed in a Moto2 race in 2010. The fatality comes a week after British IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon in Las Vegas.
