Johann Zarco successfully passed his medical test this afternoon, an essential step for him to be allowed to compete in the Styrian Grand Prix.
Operated on Wednesday for a scaphoid fracture in the right wrist, the French driver was unable to obtain this validation on his return to the Red Bull Ring on Thursday, a period of 48 hours being necessary after the operation. Resting this Friday while the other drivers took advantage of two free practice sessions in the dry, Zarco had an appointment with the official championship doctors this afternoon to submit him to a series of exercises and checks to ensure he was fit to get back into the saddle and ride his GP19.
The green light has been given to him, and we can therefore see Johann Zarco on track at the Red Bull Ring again on Saturday morning, six days after his violent collision with Franco Morbidelli in turn 3, where his motorcycle had pulled straight towards the airfence and rebounded to then cross the track again and fail to mow down other pilots in the process. The Frenchman is the only one to have been injured in this impressive accident, following which the edge protections were reinforced in this section.
Penalized for this collision, after the stewards found him guilty of “irresponsible driving”, the Avintia driver will have to start from the pitlane on Sunday for the race. If he had not been able to resume competition this weekend, he would have had the opportunity to appeal this sanction, which was not possible if he made his return this week. Although opposed to this sanction, his team manager Ruben Xaus assured that the pilot would discharge it with the aim of moving on soon: “He’s going to try to race to the end and score some points.”
Also injured on Sunday, in an equally impressive accident in Moto2, Hafizh Syahrin did not get the green light from the doctors on Thursday to resume the track. A rather rare fact, while at the Andalusia Grand Prix we remember that Marc Marquez had received this agreement two days after having been operated on for a fractured humerus. On this same event, Cal Crutchlow had also been authorized to return in circumstances comparable to those of Zarco since he too had been operated on for a fractured scaphoid two days earlier.
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