Cudlin in doubt for Australian GP after practice crash

The Aspar rider, standing in for the injured Hector Barbera, was thrown out of the seat of his Ducati during final practice, landing heavily on his left hip and suffering an abrasion all the way around his left side from his buttock to his stomach.

The Australian completed a handful of laps in qualifying but finished over six seconds of the pace.

Cudlin said he will wait until tomorrow's warm-up to decide whether he can race or not.

"I am in a lot of pain," said Cudlin. "The crash this morning took me completely by surprise and it was pretty aggressive. It was a real shame to crash so early on and especially to cause so much damage. We had been doing a good job up to that point but afterwards it was difficult to get any useful data.

"I took a heavy blow to my hip and lost a lot of skin from my left side. They have done a good job in the clinic to get me going again and have advised complete rest to give me the best possible chance tomorrow. I'll try to go out in the warm-up, see how I feel and take it from there."