Markus Reiterberger remains in recovery after his highside crash in Race 2 at the Pirelli Riviera di Rimini Round, where the German rookie broke two vertebrae and was forced to take to the sidelines in his first season in WorldSBK. The German national Champion has been able to stop by the #GermanGP at Sachsenring however, presenting polesitter Marc Marquez with his Tissot pole position watch in the Qualifying Presentation, and the Althea BMW rider spoke to WorldSBK.com about his injury, recovery, and return.

“It’s nice to be here, it’s an incredible crowd and great to be here and see my heroes,” said Reiterberger. “From my side I feel quite good now and I have some support to help me be able to walk around, and I can do everything – just not sport or anything to heavy. The recovery is going well and I hope to be ready for Lausitzring.”

The German’s home Round takes place after the WorldSBK summer break from the 16^th to 18^th September, giving the rookie more time to try and recover from the injuries – although the Althea rider remains disappointed to have missed his first opportunity to race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

“Now it’s four weeks since the crash,” explains Reiterberger. “The first week was very hard and I had a lot of pain, in hospital the whole week…I feel better day by day now and we’ve done a lot of recovery work. I was really sad not to be in Laguna Seca because I’ve dreamed about that track since I was a kid, but right now I have to concentrate on recovery. It’s good for me now because we have a long summer break so I can recover.”

Reiterberger counts on an impressive record at his home track on the WorldSBK calendar, taking a double win at the circuit in 2015 in his national championship-winning campaign and having good experience of the venue.

“The track is new for nearly everyone, but a lot of riders are there for testing so it will be really tough because I will miss the tests, but I do know the track,” continued the rookie. “I’m really happy to be back in Germany in WorldSBK and I’ve done over a 1000 laps at Lausitzring. I hope my injury will be ok then and I’ll try my best to be fit again - I don’t know after this what I will be able to do because I’ve never had an injury like this -  but maybe I can be in the top ten. I just hope I can start and not be in too much pain.”

WorldSBK heads to Germany from the 16^th – 18^th September for the Pirelli German Round, with Reiterberger heading the home charge for home manufacturer BMW after the summer break lets teams test and then rest.