Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi reckons he is lucky to get away with a bruised thumb after crashing out of this afternoon's MotoGP qualifying session at Brno - minutes after setting pole position.

The Doctor lost the front as he went into the second sector of the track but emerged virutally unscathed as his YZR-M1 bounced across the gravel and flipped over, causing some serious damage.

“Pole position is great, but the most important thing is that I’m okay after the crash. I have a bit of pain in my right thumb but that’s all, so I think I’ve been quite lucky. I’ll get it checked out at the Clinica Mobile later but I don’t think it’s anything bad," said The Doctor.

"This weekend only one of the front tyres is working well for us, which means we only have four for the weekend, so we’re putting quite a lot of stress on just a few tyres. I arrived to brake very deep and just lost the front, it was unlucky. Anyway, we did a great job in the session and being on pole again is important. We have a good race pace and I think it’s possible to be competitive tomorrow.”
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