During the French Grand Prix, Isak Gifting got caught up in a start crash with Andrea Bonacorsi and as a result broke his hand. Six days after the GP he was back in action at the Italian Championship in which he finished fifth overall to hold onto his red plate and championship lead.
Due to the injury, Gifting sat out the last two MXGP World Championship events in Germany and Latvia but after riding this week, he has decided to head to Maggiora to return to World Championship action.
The JK Yamaha rider will be back under the awning with Anton Nagy as the pair race MXGP this weekend.
We caught up with Gifting for an update on his injury ahead of his MXGP return:
“Basically, the injury I picked up in France at the MXGP in the qualifying race when I came together with Bonacorsi at the start. I had a pretty big crash but what broke my hand was more the handlebars got caught together, his was on top of mine. That is what I think caused the injury. I tried to race there on Sunday but it wasn’t possible, it hurt too much”.
“I took a couple of days off and then decided to go Italian Championship the weekend after to give it a try in Montevarchi. It was tough and really hard but I got through it. I finished fifth overall and managed to keep the red plate which was my goal for that weekend”
“Now I’ve had a couple of weeks off at home just to let the bone heal a little bit. I feel better with the hand and I did the first day of riding today (Wednesday). It felt quite okay, the hand is still a bit swollen and that but there’s nothing wrong with it, the bone is healing well. It should be alright, I will ride again maybe tomorrow (Thursday) and then head to Maggiora”.
“I obviously haven’t been riding that much lately so we will see what I can do in Maggiora. I need to get some time on the bike but also be a bit careful so I can get time on the bike without doing anything stupid. I can feel that I’ve been off the bike for a bit so I will try to take it as good training and not focus too much on the results. I think the speed can maybe be quite alright but to keep it up for a whole moto is tough when you aren’t riding enough so we’ll see”.
There is more good news for JK Yamaha as they also welcome EMX125 rider, Giorgio Orlando back under the awning in Maggiora as an early season injury ruled him out of the action but he makes his return this weekend.