VR46 admit Fabio di Giannantonio injury came from a celebration-gone-wrong

Fabio di Giannantonio’s crash, which caused his costly injury, came after a celebration which backfired.

The VR46 Ducati rider crashed heavily on the opening day of the MotoGP Sepang preseason test.

He broke a collarbone and was ruled out of the final two days of Sepang testing, and is awaiting corrective surgery.

There is no TV footage of his crash from Wednesday.

But awkwardly the rumours that his crash was self-inflicted by getting a wheelie wrong have been confirmed.

“He arrived in Sepang with a great desire, he hadn't ridden a MotoGP bike since October,” VR46’s Uccio Salucci explained to Sky Italy.

“At the end of the session he made a wheelie: the front tyre was unfortunately 0.3 degrees less and closed for him.

“The bad luck factor played a lot, you can't say anything to a guy like that..."

Di Giannantonio had also missed the final part of last season due to injury.

This year he is equipped with a factory-spec Ducati, the only rider aside from Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia to profit from one.

He had impressively posted the seventh-fastest time of Day 1 in Sepang.

But his joy at returning to MotoGP, and setting a respectable time, was curtailed when his showboating went badly wrong.

Di Giannantonio’s fractured collarbone means his timescale for recovery is unconfirmed.

But the third Ducati GP25 rider on the grid is now at a major disadvantage with the start of the season looming, due to a crash in the most unusual circumstances.