Maria Herrera replaces injured Okubo at Dynavolt Honda at Portimao
The Japanese rider was declared unfit and will be replaced by Maria Herrera in Portugal, giving him time to recover ahead of Aragon
Maria Herrera will deputise for the injured Hikari Okubo at Dynavolt Honda for the forthcoming Motul Portuguese Round. The Spaniard will make her return to FIM Supersport World Championship action after Japanese star Hikari Okubo was passed unfit to ride this weekend, following injuries sustained in a big crash in Race 2 at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto.
The 23-year-old Spaniard has done a lot in her young career, having been a respectable 13th in the WorldSSP300 Championship in 2018, accumulating numerous top ten finishes and setting one fastest lap. For 2019, she moved up to WorldSSP and achieved a best finish of 14th at Jerez, before parting company with the team. Since, she’s been in the MotoE™ World Cup and will look to combine all of her experience, along with her race craft learnt in the Moto3™ World Championship in past years, to make a successful return to the class.
Speaking ahead of her return to action, she said: “Firstly I want to give thanks to Dynavolt Honda for this opportunity. I will do my best. I think we can have a good time together this weekend working and doing well. It’s a new goal for me to get to know the bike quickly because it’s my first time with Honda but the team has the potential so let’s enjoy!”
Team manager and former 500cc World Championship Grand Prix podium finisher Simon Buckmaster insisted no pressure was on Herrera, saying: “Obviously the big point at the start of this is that Hikari hasn’t been passed fit to race. Things looked OK after Jerez but he felt unwell when we got here on Monday night, so went back to hospital and had another CT scan; this time on the front of his face.
“They found a fracture of the lamina papyracea of the ethmoid bone with hemosinus which meant that were he to crash again, the risk was too high. The medical staff have said he is unfit to ride. We were looking forward to this weekend, Jerez was disappointing but we would put this behind us and stride forward. That can’t happen so we have had to nominate a replacement rider. Maria Herrera will be that rider. She has ridden in Moto3™, MotoE™ and WorldSSP last year, so she’s stepping in at the last minute. We have no expectations of her but we are looking forward to working with her, doing the best job and looking to get some points.”
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