Painkillers get Zulfahmi through first day of MotoGP 2013

Malaysian Moto3 racer Muhammad Zulfahmi Khiruddin rode his way through on the first day of the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix 2013 at the Sepang Circuit here with help from painkillers.

"My hands don't hurt but the swelling on my hips do. The pain doesn't allow me to bend even on a straight path," he told reporters after his free practice sessions today.

He said the swelling on his hips was due to the accident while racing at the Aragon track last week.

As a result, he sustained a minor fracture on his right wrist while his left wrist was also injured and had to undergo surgery.

Muhammad Zulfahmi said he was injected with painkillers to reduce the pain during a checkup at the SIC medical unit today.

"Looks like I'll be depending on painkillers for the race here," he said.

During the free practice, Muhammad Zulfahmi only managed to record the 20th fastest time in both sessions today.

In the first session, he recorded a time of two minutes 16.852 seconds, and 2:18.610s in the second.

"I didn't do many laps for the first session...I only managed seven full laps. I only wanted to get my body used to the motorcycle this morning.

"The second session wasn't so good as the track was wet due to rain, I only did two full laps. I have no comment on my motorcycle," he said.

A rider from Team Calvo, Spain's Maverick Vinales, dominated the first free practice session with a time of 2:14.961s but failed to maintain his rhythm in the second and was 2.271s behind Australian Jack Miller from team Caretta Technology-RTG, who recorded 2:15.598s to lead the pack.

Meanwhile, Malaysian wild card racer Amirul Hafiq Azmi fully utilised both training sessions to fine tune his motorcycle.

"I didn't do my best today despite good weather in the morning session. My motorcycle setting was also not good as it wasn't stable when I braked. The engineers immediately did a new set up and it improved after that.

"I tried to improve my time in the second session after changing my gearbox and suspension, but the weather wasn't on my side. I also tried speed tyres but only for one round because the track was wet," he said.

According to the 16-year-old representing Touchline-SIC-Ajo, he will try to improve his performance in the qualifying session tomorrow.