Thursday, 18 July 2013 00:00
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Reuters: MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo will attend this weekend’s US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca and may try and race despite doctors advising him to rest his broken collarbone after two successive crashes.
“Finally, we have decided to go to Laguna Seca,” the Spaniard, third overall in the standings after eight of 18 races and just 11 points behind leader Marc Marquez, said in a Yamaha statement on Wednesday.
He had earlier posted a photograph on Twitter of himself packing a bag with the words “almost ready for Laguna Seca”. Yamaha said Lorenzo wanted to be with his team and could make an attempt to start.
Last Saturday, after crashing heavily in practice at the Sachsenring in Germany, the Yamaha rider had assured his 800,000 followers that he did not want to take more risks and was planning to return at Indianapolis in August.
The rider said on Wednesday he had thought it would be “convenient” to take time out to recover “but over the last two days I have felt much better so now I want to be there, although I will try to not take too many risks”. Team manager Wilco Zeelenberg said the team would set the strategy for the weekend once Lorenzo had arrived.
The champion broke his collarbone in a crash at Assen in the Netherlands last month, had surgery and returned the next day to race and finish fifth. In Germany, the Mallorcan bent the titanium plate that had been inserted along with eight screws and required further shoulder surgery.
“His injury is healing well and looks completely normal,” the official MotoGP website quoted doctor Marc Cots of Barcelona’s Catalunya general hospital as saying after an medical examination on Tuesday.
“The plate we inserted is well positioned and we’re pleased with the progress the injury is making. Jorge is physically capable of riding again now, just as he did at Assen immediately after his previous surgery.
“However, our advice is to be cautious and avoid the risk of another crash. But the decision on when to return is entirely up to him.”
