Ducati: Pirro doing 'better than expected' after huge accident

Ducati has described Michele Pirro’s condition as “better than expected” after a terrifying crash on the entry toward Mugello’s fearsome turn one left him unconscious, with a dislocated shoulder, and forced Friday afternoon’s MotoGP FP2 session to be red flagged.

Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti said Pirro, Ducati’s test rider, who was making a wildcard appearance this weekend, “has a huge concussion,” as well as “a lot of pain” in certain parts of his body. However the fact the Italian has no neurological or spinal damage comes as a huge relief.

A hush fell over the Tuscan track as medics, doctors and marshals attended to the stricken Pirro after he was thrown over the front of his Ducati GP18 at well over 250mph. Thankfully, he was reported as conscious before being taken to the medical centre for further checks.

The Italian was later transferred to a local hospital in Florence, where he will more than likely spend the night. Ciabatti also revealed Pirro regained consciousness when trackside doctors put his dislocated shoulder back in place.

“Michele is luckily doing better than we expected after his horrific crash,” said Ciabatti. “I just spoke to Dr. Charte who is in contact with the doctors at the hospital Carreggi in Florence, and Davide Tardozzi is there as well. So the situation is that there is no neurological damage, nor spinal damage.

He has a huge concussion and a lot of pain on the chest and on the lower part of the body. So the doctors will keep him there for a few more hours if not for the night, and I think most probably they will declare him unfit for the race.

“But we are quite relieved after seeing the red flag, the images of the accident, the ambulances, the medical car with the doctor obviously, and he was unconscious laying face down in the gravel when they arrived there, so they were obviously quite scared.

“He had a dislocated shoulder, so when they put it back, it was so painful for him that he woke up! And luckily from there, the situation looked slightly better. And as I said, luckily it is not as bad as we could unfortunately expect.”

Does he know what caused the crash? “No,” replied Ciabatti. “We don't know yet. We need to assess the reason. I haven't been back to the garage yet, but I will go there and try see if we already have a reason for the crash, a clear reason for it or not.”

It was an eventful afternoon for the Italian factory, with lead rider Andrea Dovizioso suffering from a blown engine soon into the restarted session. Ciabatti was still unsure of the cause of the component failure.

“I know that we were using here in principal the same engine from Le Mans, but I don't think that the engine had so much mileage that it would have a technical problem, but I don't know if it was a breakdown in the engine or some hoses or anything.

“The bike came back when I was getting out and I had some people to take care of, so I will go there now and see if it's a broken engine. If it is, we will say we broke the engine, if not, we will let you know what caused the leak of oil.”

Could the rise on the entry to San Donato, which causes the MotoGP machines to be airborne temporarily and momentarily rev highly, be to blame?

“Yes, but we have done it there a thousand times without problems, so I think we must look at the real reason,” Ciabatti said. “I don't think it's due to that small or huge bump which makes the bike lift a little bit from the asphalt.”