Rins out of Catalan MotoGP with broken arm

Rins was training on his push bike on the Barcelona circuit on Thursday when he fell and broke his right arm.

After an examination at the Universitari Dexeus Hospital in Barcelona, Rins was declared unfit and will sit out his home round in Barcelona.

His fracture has been set and he will undergo surgery on Friday to correct the injury.

This comes as a huge blow to Rins’ title hopes, having come to the Catalan GP weekend following four-successive race crashes which have cast him 82 points adrift of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo at the top of the standings.

A brief statement from Suzuki read: “Alex Rins has been ruled out of his home GP after a cycling accident.

“The Team Suzuki Ecstar rider will unfortunately have to sit out the Grand Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya due to an unfortunate accident he suffered while training this morning with his bicycle on track.

“The Spaniard fell during a training lap and as a result he suffered damage to his right arm, with a large contused area and a lot of pain.

“He was quickly taken to Barcelona’s Universitari Dexeus Hospital for further examination and medical checks revealed a fracture in the radius bone.

“The fracture was immobilised and tomorrow morning he will undergo surgery to fix it.

“More information to be given in future updates.”

Suzuki has since confirmed it will not field a replacement for Rins, despite test rider Sylvain Guintoli being on site in Barcelona for BT Sport and riding in the post-race test on Monday.

"It's a shame what happened today,” Rins said.

“I really wanted to race here in Montmelo and to have a solid performance to get back on track after some tough races.

“Tomorrow I will undergo surgery and then we'll talk about timings for the recovery.

“In any case we will work really hard to get the feeling back as soon as possible and try to return quickly.

“I don't know yet if I'll be ready for the German GP but I will work hard to be fit by then. Thank you for the messages of support.”

Rins won’t have long to recover before the German GP at the Sachsenring on June 20 before the series heads to Assen a week later.

This is the second season in succession Rins has been forced to miss races due to injury, having been forced out of last year’s Spanish GP when he broke his shoulder in a qualifying crash.