Noah Dettwiler’s emotional comeback – one year after his horrific crash

Just under a year ago, in Sepang, during the sighting lap of the Moto3 Grand Prix, Swiss rider Noah Dettwiler was rear-ended at over 180 km/h by Spaniard Jose Antonio Rueda, who had already been crowned world champion. Dettwiler had been experiencing technical problems and was riding very slowly at the side of the track. The Swiss rider was hurled through the air, sustaining an open fracture to his left lower leg and life-threatening internal injuries, and had to be resuscitated. The Spaniard shattered his right hand.

The fact that Noah was given the all-clear by the race doctors ahead of this weekend’s Italian Championship round at Vallelunga, 35 kilometres north of Rome, marks a significant milestone. At the previous events in Mugello, Cremona and Imola, he had been unable to gain entry with his medical reports issued in Switzerland and was barred from starting on each occasion.

On Friday, Dettwiler finished third on the Kuja-Ducati in the first Supersport practice session on a wet track and sixth in Qualifying 1. On Saturday morning, the track slowly dried out and the riders took to Qualifying 2 on slicks, where the Swiss rider could only manage 11th on the grid. The two Italians, Niccolò Antonelli (four-time GP winner) and Lorenzo Dalla Porta (2019 Moto3 World Champion), both on Yamahas, dominated the qualifying sessions. In the race, Dettwiler finished 15th, which was at least enough for one point.

“That was incredible after almost a year,” Noah said, expressing his feelings on his return. “But I’ve never been able to practise a start on the Ducati in dry conditions, and I’ve never ridden on Dunlop tyres either, because in all the tests I was on Pirelli tyres, just like those used in the World Championship. Even so, getting the go-ahead to race on Friday morning was the biggest victory of my career. Now we can make plans and no longer need to worry about the medical check.”

Dettwiler owes his remarkable recovery from such a serious accident to the skill of the doctors in Malaysia. “They’d already treated me exceptionally well at the circuit, and the operations in hospital ultimately saved my life,” he told SPEEDWEEK.com. “Back in Switzerland, the doctors just had to take care of my leg, and that went very well too. However, I still have a metal plate in there, and it’ll stay there for at least another six months. I can still feel it; this injury hasn’t fully healed yet.”

In December 2025, Dettwiler spent a month at a rehabilitation clinic in Bellikon, where he was also visited by Jose Antonio Rueda. “I was delighted by that, but it was still a very difficult time for me, as I already had to make decisions back then about what the future would hold. Without my family, my sister, my manager Daniele Camuso and everyone around me, I would hardly have managed it. I felt frustrated at times because I wasn’t given the all-clear to race, but I quickly realised that this wasn’t them making things difficult for me, but that it was in my best interests. It would have been too soon to return to racing after such a serious crash. I’d already been training in March and thought I was ready. Looking back, however, I’m grateful to the doctors for being cautious and not wanting to take any responsibility, because a crash can always happen.”