Repsol Honda’s Pol Espargaro returned to Valencia on Sunday after his Saturday high-side but was in too much pain to race.

The local rider had been the only Repsol at Circuit Ricardo Tormo after Marc Marquez’ earlier training accident but after an afternoon at Valencia hospital and a night in considerable pain, the decision was taken to withdraw from the final round in favour of next weeks’ 2022 test.

“I feel super tired and have pain everywhere, like in the neck,” Espargaro explained on Sunday. “The wrist is pretty inflated and the worst thing is under my ribs, I feel quite a lot of pain every time I try to breathe. Every time I try to use my abs, you know just to wake up from the bed, it's already difficult.

“Luckily nothing broken but never had this pain before,” he continued. “It's super painful and even if yesterday night I wanted to race today - I said to my team to be ready this morning to try to do it - but definitely I am not able to compete with these guys and to jump on the bike if I'm not 100% condition. We have a test in five days in Jerez, which is important for the team and for me, so it's better maybe to rest and to go again there.

“Yeah, that was a big one,” he explained of his FP3 crash at the fast turn 13. “When I was switching third to fourth gear, in between the gears I have a little bit of a spin, the tyre was new out of the pitbox, it should not happen this, but it happened. I slide then with the change of the gear from third to fourth it increase. I could control the first small high side but then the second one as the tyre was soft and new it comes super aggressive and it launched me, I don't know how much speed but around 200kph and I fly quite high and then I impact on the floor. It was super, super fast. So to not be with broken bones already is something important but I think the most pain I have, it's psychologically not able to race here in Valencia with a stand full of people.

“I went to the hospital, I take a lot of painkillers. I thought I had all my body broken but finally nothing broken. Just under my ribs there is tendons that are quite affected and that's why I struggle to breathe and I feel this pain. This is part of this MotoGP world sometimes. These crashes happen and you need to face it. Hopefully in five days I can be a little bit better and jump on the bike in Jerez.”