Dover’s Jake Dixon has withdrawn from the rest of the weekend’s racing in Portugal this weekend after initially being declared fit to race.
The Aspar rider’s participation in the second round of the MotoGP support series at Portimao was dependent on passing a medical after a practice crash in Qatar two weeks ago.
The crash put him in hospital and prolonged his stay in the country.
Dixon was thrown from his Kalex bike at Turn 13 in Qatar, suffering a laceration on the lung that made an immediate flight home too dangerous. He had to wait more than a week before returning to the UK.
However he confirmed earlier this week his intention to be in the paddock at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, and after satisfying officials of his fitness to race, Dixon set the fifth-fastest time in free practice on Friday, a 1min45.850sec – nine tenths of a second slower than pacesetter Manuel Gonzalez.
He improved his time in practice 1 to 1.42.859 for seventh place, just under half a second behind quickest man Alonso Lopez.
“I have had better days, but compared to where I was just a week ago, I am getting better every day,” Dixon said on teamaspar.com.
“I am really happy because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to be here, it was one of the worst crashes I have ever had.
“This weekend I’m going to take it easy, thinking session by session, without big expectations. I’m happy just to be back on the bike.”
However, it was confirmed early on Saturday morning that Dixon was suffering from lower back pain and had taken the sensible decision to pull out of the rest of the weekend, with practice 2 and qualifying on Saturday before Sunday’s race.
There is now a three-week gap before the next round on the calendar which takes place in Austin, USA from April 12-14.