Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner managed to keep his injured ankle out of the way when his RC213V pitched him off during an out-lap at the start of today's MotoGP qualifying session.
The reigning world champion was chucked over the highside on the brakes into Honda corner on a cold tyre but kept his right leg out of the way and escaped with just a bruised hip before going back out and blasting his way to pole by half a second from Jorge Lorenzo.
"It's been a good progression over these past few races and it's great to get pole for my home grand prix. The bike has been good since Friday and I'm feeling comfortable on it again. It wasn't an easy session this afternoon, we went out on a hard tyre and on my out lap, as I was peeling into the Honda turn, the bike decided to flip me," said Stoner.
"I tried to make sure I kept my leg out of the way as I came off, fortunately it didn't get caught up. My left hip is hurting a little as I landed on it but hopefully we shouldn't have any issues with it tomorrow.
"The bike feels pretty good for race pace, we would have liked to have done some more work in this afternoon's session but we lost time after the crash. A big thanks to all the fans for coming out and putting up with this weather, hopefully we can turn this pole into a win tomorrow."
Click here for the crash footage
