Rossi ponders whether to race at Valencia

Nine minutes into the session, the Italian's M1 bike barrel-rolled on the back straight and was completely destroyed, while Rossi managed to get into the ambulance on his feet while holding his hand.

Despite medical checks revealed three fractures - the base of the little finger, the pyramidal bone, and the wrist's ulnar bone - the seven-times champion was relieved the accident did not cause worse consequences.

"I feel fairly well," Rossi told Italia1 television. "It was a big crash and I was scared, because I immediately realized I broke my hand and I wanted to know by how much, but there are no big problems to the wrist or to the arm, just three small fractures in the hand.

"It hurts quite a bit, but apart from that I'm fine."

Rossi then explained how he lost control as he accelerated while exiting the turn that leads on to the back straight.

"I lost the rear under acceleration," said Rossi. "I was going quick and the tyre wasn't bad: I had already done a 1:33.3. But there's a bump there at turn exit, and I lost it under acceleration. I didn't expect it: I tried to control it but there was nothing more I could do."

Rossi is in second place in the championship, 24 points ahead of rival Dani Pedrosa on Repsol Honda. A victory by the Spaniard, who starts tomorrow's race from pole, with Rossi taking no points, would make the Italian fall to third place in this season's standings.

Asked whether that would be a good reason to take part in the race, Rossi replied: "Yes, I'd do it for that and for the fact that I've never missed a race in my career. But we'll have to decide whether to take a risk tomorrow by racing, and having to make injections and to suffer just for second place.

"We'll have to see how I feel in the next two-three hours, and how much pain I feel in the hand. Last year I raced in these conditions in Assen, but then the world championship was at stake. Now the title is already lost."

It is reported that an employee of overalls manufacturers Dainese has gone to the Clinica Mobile this afternoon to try to get Rossi's hand in and out of a glove that has the ability to be massively modified by the company's own sewing technicians at the track.

Rossi famously lost the MotoGP title to Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden at this track last year after crashing early in the race.

"This track hasn't really brought me much luck in these last two years, but that's how it goes," concluded Rossi.