Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci says he will take the risk of riding without protection on his injured right hand in this weekend's Qatar MotoGP.
The Italian broke three metacarpals in his right hand during the Phillip Island test four weeks ago, and underwent surgery in Melbourne before returning to Europe.
He missed the final pre-season test in Qatar a fortnight ago, replaced by Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, but was deemed fit enough to contest first practice, which he started wearing a protective cast but quickly discarded.
"At the beginning, I started with the plastic cast, but the situation was not so great," he said.
"I had not so much feeling on my hand, so after two laps I came back to the pits and changed the cast.
"Now I ride without nothing. The situation for sure is more risky.
"In some parts of the circuit it is not possible to open the throttle fully, even the brake is very difficult in some parts because I am very slow to move the hand, and especially I made a lot of effort for riding."
Petrucci finished the session 15th, five places and 0.569 seconds behind team-mate Scott Redding.
While icing his injured hand, Petrucci said he was relieved to get through the session, in which he completed 17 laps.
"I am very tired and I feel a lot of pain, but I'm really happy," he added.
"Now I feel more relaxed. Now I am free of a big pressure and I am happy that, at the moment, I can ride the bike.
"It is even more difficult [this weekend] because I had no testing here."
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