Jacque to miss home race

Kawasaki's Olivier Jacque looks set to skip his home Grand Prix at Le Mans in two weeks time following a heavy crash in Friday afternoon's second free practice session in Shanghai. The 33-year old French rider went down hard in the final turn, suffering a deep open wound to the inside of the right forearm.

It is thought that Jacque's arm was trapped under his 800cc Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR as the bike and the rider skid on tarmac and into the gravel trap. Known for sure is that Jacque was bleeding intensively as he arrived at the medical centre, where doctors decided to airlift him to the Huashan hospital in Shanghai.

He went directly to the surgery table in order to have the debris removed from the wound and to repair damage to his forearm muscles. The former 250cc world champion later returned to France for further investigations and to consult with his own doctors in a bid to accelerate the rehabilitation process.

The Kawasaki Racing Team will monitor Jacque's physical condition in the run up to the French GP before making a decision whether he should race or not. "At the moment it's impossible to say how long the injury will keep him off the bike", a Kawasaki spokesman stated.

"If it proves impossible for him to ride then we will have to look at the possibility of fielding a temporary replacement at Le Mans, as the French Grand Prix is a very important race for Kawasaki." Due to the fact that the Japanese manufacturer's reserve rider Naoki Matsudo suffered injuries in a crash earlier this year, Ducati test rider Neil Hodgson is tipped to be in the frame to fill in for Olivier Jacque on May 20.

Jacque made his debut in MotoGP with Yamaha in 2001, one year after clinching the 250cc World Title. The Frenchman's best season yet in the top category of Grand Prix motorcycling was 2002, when he finished 10th in the final standings. He grabbed one pole (Sachsenring 2002) and one podium finish (Shanghai 2005) in his 45 MotoGP starts for Yamaha, Moriwaki and Kawasaki.

His career went downhill in recent years. He competed in only a handful of races in 2005 and was later found out of a ride last year. This year, Jacque triggered a four-bike pile-up at Istanbul and was generally outpaced by younger team-mate Randy de Puniet. He now ranks 17th in the overall standings this year, after scoring 4 points in the season opening round in Qatar.