Van der Drift: Hand injury the worst
| By Steven English |
Wednesday, August 4th 2010, 09:10 GMT |
 Chris van der Drift believes the injury to his left hand will decide how long he is kept out of racing, following his Superleague crash at Brands Hatch last weekend.
The New Zealander's car vaulted over the back of Julien Jousse's car and hit a bridge support in mid air.
He broke his right ankle in two places and has two broken ribs, a cracked shoulder blade, a dislocated shoulder and a broken right little finger. He will also require plastic surgery on his left index finger.
Van der Drift underwent surgery on the ankle injury on Monday and has since been moved to a specialist centre in Northampton, where the extent of the damage to his hand will be assessed.
"It depends on my hand," he said. "I'm going to do my best to get back up to speed again. I don't know how long I'll be out, I just have to see how it goes in the next few weeks and how quickly I heel.
"I'm feeling a bit bruised and banged up but it's not too bad. I've got lots of pain killers so they're helping. My ankle was operated on yesterday so now I need to get my finger sorted."
Van der Drift remembers the accident, which he puts down as a racing incident.
"I remember using my push-to-pass, went to overtake on the right hand side and [Jousse] moved once, but I kept my foot hard in it and then he moved again, I went on the grass and we touched," he said.
"I was committed to it as you need to keep the momentum up to get past. The first time he moved was close but the second one left me no room and I was already going for it. It was a racing incident, just one of those things really. I'm still alive, so that's good.
"I remember when I started to fly, that was all, and then waking up again when I was stuck [in the car]. I woke up, saw my hand and then knew my ankle was busted and in another direction. I was in serious pain so I undid the buckles and got out myself."
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