(MENAFN- The Peninsula) MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez's participation in next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix is in doubt after he broke a finger during a crash in training, Spanish media reported on Saturday.
Marquez broke the pinky finger on his left hand after suffering the fall whilst dirt track racing and was operated on in a Barcelona hospital soon after.
"He showed up with a deformity in the left pinky on his left hand and scans revealed a fracture," Doctor Xavier Mit, who carried out the surgery told Spanish sports daily AS.
"Therefore we decided to treat the injury, as we would with any other patient, by fixing a titanium plate to his finger.
"That allows us to start the recovery period in 24 hours and to have the chance to run at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez."
Marquez is only fifth in the world championship standings after three races this year.
After a fifth-placed finish in the opening race of the season in Qatar, he won the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, but a crash towards the end of the Argentina Grand Prix last weekend left him 30 points adrift of championship leader Valentino Rossi.
Marquez's Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa is also currently sidelined due to a forearm injury.
Rossi currently holds a six-point advantage over the Ducati GP15 of Andrea Dovizioso in the World Championship standings, and a thirty-point lead over the fifth-placed Marquez. Rossi and Marquez's clash at the previous race in Argentina has whetted fans appetites in anticipation of another great battle now the Championship has landed in Europe.
Last year at Jerez, Rossi and Marquez fought it out in the early part of the race, before Marquez went on to take the victory, with Rossi in second and Pedrosa third. This year the 36 year-old Italian will be hoping to go one better, and add to his impressive tally of 6 MotoGP victories at the Spanish Circuit. Rossi is the most successful rider in history at Jerez, having taken 8 victories across all classes, and is one of only 3 non-Spanish riders to have stood on the top step in the MotoGP„¢ class, along with Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi.
Marquez will surely have other plans though, as he became the first rider to win the race from pole position last season to claim his first victory at the Spanish circuit. Despite trailing Rossi by such a margin in the standings, the reigning MotoGP World Champion Marquez said that he is not panicking yet despite his injury, as he was 30 points behind his teammate Pedrosa after six races in 2013, and still went on to win the title.
Repsol Honda have not made an official decision on who will be Marquez's teammate come the weekend, as they await news on how well Dani Pedrosa's recovery from arm pump surgery has gone. Pedrosa will take part in a supermoto race this week to see if his rehabilitation is on course to allow him to return to action in Jerez. The man who has filled in for Pedrosa for the last two races, HRC test rider Hiroshi Aoyama, is on standby to race once more should the Spaniard not be fully recovered in time.
Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo will be looking to get his season back on track, having failed to finish on a podium in the first three races of a MotoGP season for the first time in his career. The Spaniard will be boosted by support from his home crowd, and the fact he took back-to-back victories at the Jerez circuit in 2010 and 2011.
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