Honda's Andrea Dovizioso and Hiroshi Aoyama sore after Assen practice crashes

All three works Honda team men fell in quick succession at the start of morning practice, with Casey Stoner, Dovizioso and Aoyama each having a separate large accident.

Dovizioso had to be taken away on a stretcher, having sustained a toe injury as well as hurting his neck and back.

"I crashed exiting Turn 9 on the second lap as there was a wet spot next to the white strip that you cannot see when you enter the corner also, the tyre on the left was not up to temperature yet," Dovizioso explained.

"I had a high-side and it was a hard impact on the ground but fortunately I have no real problems apart from some pain in my back and neck.

"It's the first time for a while that I have had such a big accident and I was really happy with the protection from the leathers and boots."

The Italian went on to qualify fifth.

"I'm happy with today's final result," Dovizioso said. "Starting from the second row, at five tenths from the fastest rider, is positive after this morning's incident.

"This morning we lost 45 minutes of practice time, so I hope that tomorrow we can have a dry warm up to make some small changes on the set up of the bike.

"I'm confident for the race, but it will be important to take care in the first laps because with these conditions we struggle to bring the tyres up to temperature."

Aoyama, who has moved up from Gresini Honda to deputise for Dani Pedrosa in the factory team this weekend, qualified 12th as he struggled after his big morning accident.

"It's not been an easy weekend so far," he said.

"Yesterday I didn't have much time to work on the bike because of the cancellation of FP2 and this morning I had a crash at the beginning of the practice.

"I saw Casey and Andrea falling in a left hand corner and I immediately thought I had to be careful because here it's very difficult to get grip in left corners.

"But a few corners later I crashed and it was totally unexpected. It was a big one, around 190 kilometres per hour and I hit my back.

"It was very painful, I received an injection at Clinica Mobile for the qualifying practice, but in the end the pain remained almost the same.

"I hope I can rest a bit tonight and feel better for the race tomorrow."