Crutchlow fighting to start home MotoGP race at Silverstone

The Briton was forced to miss qualifying after falling and injuring his ankle on an out-lap in Saturday morning practice. After initial checks at the circuit's medical centre he was taken to hospital, where extensive scans showed confirmed he had escaped without any fractures.

As a result he could still make tomorrow's race pending a detailed assessment with Silverstone's medical team tomorrow morning.

Having missed last year's British Grand Prix with a broken collarbone, Crutchlow said on Twitter that he was desperate to make his home race this year, but accepted the final decision would be out of his hands.

"So sorry to everyone who came out today to watch and I wasn't there again!," he tweeted. "Trust me doing everything I can to be on grid tomorrow.

"I have to take medical tomorrow morning and I don't make the decision ...! The extent of the injury to my ankle is bad but I can only hope."

Tech 3 team manager Herve Poncharal said he was confident Cal would be able to start Sunday's race.

"We are very optimistic that Cal will be able to participate in the British Grand Prix tomorrow. The medical staff in Oxford said he should be fine to race and he has no broken bones in the foot or ankle. That is a big relief because Cal was in quite a lot of pain," he explained.

"He will now undertake the necessary checks with the Silverstone medics in the morning, but it looks very positive. We obviously hope he will be able to ride after the disappointment of last year when he was unable to start the race because he was injured.

"I know what it means for him to race in front of his home crowd, who have given Cal and the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team unbelievable support this weekend."