Mugello (Italy) (AFP)
Swiss Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier, seriously injured on Saturday at the Italian Grand Prix, "underwent chest surgery overnight for a vascular injury," Carregi hospital in Florence told AFP on Sunday.
"Serious brain damage persists. He remains in intensive care in very serious condition," added a spokesperson for the hospital.
Dupasquier fell in the last moments of qualifying on Saturday.
According to television footage showing only the end of his fall and statements from the other riders involved, Japanese Ayumu Sasaki and Spaniard Jeremy Alcoba, he was hit by at least one motorcycle, before sliding lifeless on the track.
After forty minutes of intervention by rescuers, the 19-year-old Swiss "polytrauma and in serious condition" was transferred by medical helicopter to the trauma center of the Carregi hospital in Florence.
His Moto3 team, PrüstelGP, and his compatriot Thomas Lüthi, who plays in Moto2, have decided not to start the GP in their respective categories on Sunday.
During the "warm up" on Sunday morning, several riders displayed messages of support for the Swiss, to whom the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) dedicated his pole position in MotoGP.
Son of motocross and Supermoto rider Philippe Dupasquier, Jason, who wears the N.50, made his World Cup debut in 2020 under the colors of the German team PrüstelGP, which races KTMs.
He didn't score any points and placed 28th in his first season.
In 2021, after five starts, he is 10th in the drivers' standings with 27 units.
© 2021 AFP