Aspar Ducati’s Eugene Laverty has escaped from his Sepang MotoGP test crash without the hand fractures that were diagnosed earlier today.

Laverty crashed as the throttle of his Desmosedici stuck open for a second time at turn four and he bounced into the gravel. An early medical report stated the Irishman had broken bones in his right hand but an X-ray in hospital showed that it was, instead, ligament damage and he may return to duties as early as tomorrow.

“We’ve been for the X-ray and thankfully there is no fracture, just some tissue and ligament damage, which is a relief. It’s just unbelievable that after spending the last couple of months recovering from a broken wrist we have this on the first day of the first test,” said Laverty.

“It seems we had a mechanical problem and I had to jump off the bike under braking into turn four. It was a scary moment but quite lucky really because it could have been much worse. The bike went straight into the tyre wall at well over 100km/h so that wasn’t nice to see - I never like to see a bike destroyed.

“Overall it wasn’t a great day because we spent the morning with some electronic problems, the throttle stuck open and I was lucky not to crash on that occasion too. It meant the guys had to check things over and we lost some track time. Now I have to wait and see how the hand is tomorrow. Obviously I want to get back out there as soon as possible but we’ll have to wait and see when that is.”