Despite a wonderful performance in Saturday's Superpole – that got him 1st place on the grid – the Australian had nothing to cheer about on Sunday. Bayliss, who had just celebrated his 38th birthday two days earlier, managed a great start in the race and seemed to be in total control after the first few laps. But, after only 6 laps into the race, the Aussie wrongly approached the Coppice turn and crashed into the gravel.
“The crash happened so quickly that I don't remember my hand going under the handlebar or anything. The only thing I remember when I stopped was pain in my groin, I didn't feel the hand at all. Basically I crashed through corner speed, trying to make a gap on James which I was doing and in this one corner the back came around on me and went into a slide. Normally I would save it but Coppice has a little rise and the bike came back as it crested the rise and that set it off in a different direction and I didn't have a chance at saving it”, explained Bayliss.
After a quick medical check at the Clinica Mobile (circuit's medical centre), he was immediately taken to the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary for the operation. According to Ducati's latest press release, the operation consisted of the removal of the top two bones (intermediate and distal phalanges) of the little finger of his right hand. Also, the clinic's specialists checked Bayliss' groin region before giving him the final OK.
As for his upcoming recovery period, the Australian seemed pretty confident: “It's hard to say after one day but I feel like things are coming along OK and I've still got plenty of days to recover. I feel like I can get on a motorbike now but I won't know that until I do. Hopefully in just a week and a half you'll see the usual Troy! I'm confident I'm going to be fine for Valencia”.
Due to his injury at Donnington Park, the Ducati rider lost a good chance of closing the gap on WSBK leader James Toseland. The Australian is now 6th overall in standings, with a total of 64 points in 6 races.
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