Nieto retires from GP racing
Added on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Nieto retires from GP racing
Fonsi Nieto has announced his retirement from Grand Prix racing, just six weeks before the start of the new Moto2 season.
The Spanish rider, who was due to ride in the Moto2 championship for the G22 Racing team, has decided to retire from the sport after doctors described his injuries as “practically irreversible”.
The 32-year-old suffered a series of injuries during a crash at Indianapolis last season and has reported that he “had no sense of feeling in the sole of his foot”, almost six months after the accident back in August.
The injury prompted Nieto, who has five GP wins to his name and finished second in the 250cc championship back in 2002, to quit Grand Prix racing in the interests of his health.
After announcing his retirement at a press conference in a Madrid hotel on Monday, Nieto said: “I’ve weighed up this decision during the past few days and have spoken with my family and my cousins, which includes the team I was due to ride with this year. I did not want any problems or misunderstandings, and I think they were glad when I told them.”
“I go to the gym every day but after five minutes I have to stop,” said Nieto. “Faced with the possibility of not being able to do everything I wanted to properly, I preferred to retire, although this is a decision I will have to deal with forever. I know how I raced motorbikes and I also rode with Kato and Tomizawa. Now I know I’m going to walk away from competition, something that others haven’t been able to do,” added Nieto in reference to the Japanese riders who suffered fatal accidents.
