Injured Hopkins to fly back to England

The American was pitched off his bike at Turn 13 during the morning testing session at Qatar, having just posted the then fastest time of the day during short-stint qualifying simulations.

According to telemetry data, he had just come off the throttle on the entry to the corner when the bike swapped ends.

After being taken to hospital in Doha, Hopkins was diagnosed with a broken second toe on his right foot. He also has a suspected fracture on his right hand, but there is too much swelling for a firm diagnosis.

Hopkins' Rizla Suzuki team have said that they do not know whether he will be able to return for next week's final pre-season test at Jerez, but the injuries clearly put his participation in doubt.

Although there has been no confirmation that Hopkins was trying out new qualifying rubber at the time of the crash, team manager Paul Denning told autosport.com that the American was using a type of tyre that he was not completely comfortable with.

"It was a tyre that he didn't particularly like the feel of, but we had to go out there and get the data," Denning said.