Lowes ruled out of Qatar GP with shoulder injury
Sam Lowes will not take part in remainder of the 2020 Moto2 world championship opener in Qatar under medical advice as he continues to suffer with a shoulder injury.
The British rider sustained a dislocated and fractured right shoulder and also damaged ligaments in the shoulder socket in a crash during a pre-season test at Jerez in February rumoured to have been caused by a technical problem with his EG 0,0 Marc VDS bike.
Sam Lowes will not take part in remainder of the 2020 Moto2 world championship opener in Qatar under medical advice as he continues to suffer with a shoulder injury.
The British rider sustained a dislocated and fractured right shoulder and also damaged ligaments in the shoulder socket in a crash during a pre-season test at Jerez in February rumoured to have been caused by a technical problem with his EG 0,0 Marc VDS bike.
With just four weeks to recover before the 2020 opening round at the Losail International Circuit, Lowes made an impressive comeback on Friday practice to finish the day 19th fastest overall having completed a combined total of 24 laps across FP1 and FP2.
But with a 20-lap Moto2 race to face on Sunday, Lowes has been ruled out of the rest of the Qatar GP under medical and team advice.
The team has confirmed Lowes will now continue his shoulder recovery and aims to be fully fit for the second round in the United States.
Following the postponement of the Thailand round amid coronavirus fears, the Circuit of the Americas is set to host the next round on April 3-5 but that race has been plunged into uncertainty following the City of Austin declaring a ‘local state of disaster’ due to the spread of the virus.
Austin has already cancelled the South by Southwest event which attracts an estimated 75,000 people each year. Last year’s COTA MotoGP round saw a total of 120,000 spectators across the full race weekend which is now in doubt as events with over 2,500 people are set to be banned by Austin Public Health authorities.
If the United States round is postponed and no race is organised as a late replacement, the next round scheduled is Argentina on April 17-19 which would give Lowes six weeks of recovery.
