The start to the 2023 FIM Supersport World Championship campaign was promising for Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) following his switch from Kawasaki to Ducati for this season after he took a front-row grid slot during the Australian Round. However, a crash in Race 1 with Adrian Huertas (MTM Kawasaki) ended his action in Australia while he was also forced to miss the following Indonesian Round after he was diagnosed with a left collarbone fracture.
The crash occurred on Lap 4 at Turn 7 at Phillip Island, with Huertas crashing and Montella right behind having nowhere to go. Montella was diagnosed with a fractured collarbone while Huertas was diagnosed with a fracture of his fifth lumbar vertebra and rib fractures. In a post on Instagram after the round, Huertas sent his thanks to Montella for helping him despite the Italian’s injury.
Montella was present at the official presentation of the 2023 Emilia-Romagna Round, held at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”, where he will race in front of his home fans on Ducati machinery in WorldSSP. After he claimed victory for Kawasaki Puccetti Racing in Australia in 2022, Montella will be aiming to repeat that on the Ducati Panigale V2 which he competes on for Barni Ducati.
At the event, Montella spoke about his recovery plan and provided an update on his injury. Montella said on Thursday: “I rested a few days at home. Now I feel better. My collarbone is quite good, and I think, in five or six days, I will be back on a motorbike. We have two days of testing in Barcelona and we will start again from zero.”
The Italian also spoke about his goals for when he does return to the track. He took third in the Tissot Superpole session at Phillip Island and showed strong pace throughout testing at the iconic Australian circuit and Montella will be hoping he can pick this pace up where he left off as he goes in search of his second WorldSSP victory and his first with Ducati.
He said: “My goals are to finish where we started. We had a good Superpole at Phillip Island with the first row. I want to start from that. I think we have good potential with the team and bike, I feel good on the bike, and I’m happy about this. I can’t wait to start at Assen again. For me, last year was my first time at Assen. It’s a good track, I like it. It’s quite slow in some corners and quite fast in others. I think we can have a good round.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com