Hayden concerned about accidents

Following on from Hayden and Chris Vermeulen's accidents in the morning practice session, front row qualifiers and title contenders Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner had spectacular accidents on their last qualifying runs.

Both escaped with only minor injuries and expect to race on Sunday, but Hayden said the trend for accidents on cold tyres was a worry.

"It got pretty 'gnarly' at the end of the session there," he said. "A lot of guys were crashing and there were yellow flags everywhere.

"People thought getting rid of qualifying tyres would make things safer but when grid positions are as important as they are at a circuit like this you're going to have guys hanging it out for a fast lap on a race tyre, and that ain't so safe.

"I don't remember a dry qualifying session with so much carnage at the end and it's something we need to look at."

Valentino Rossi had already suggested that the difficulty in warming the tyres was a major factor in the accidents, a theory confirmed by Stoner and Lorenzo when they were allowed to return from the medical centre.