Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi has claimed pole position in a wet and crash-strewn MotoGP qualifying session at the Sachsenring this afternoon, setting the fastest time with his final lap to go six-tenths of a second quicker than team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

But it was an hour marred by bizarre crashes which saw Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden highside off his Desmosedici and catch an unsuspecting Nico Canepa in mid-air as he flew towards the gravel trap. Canepa then surfed his Pramac into the kitty litter and was stretchered away as the American tried to apologise.

Both the Gresini Hondas had identical crashes at the same corner with Alex De Angelis and Toni Elias both falling off the back of their RC212Vs which both stayed upright and careered into the trackside airbags.

Lorenzo and Rossi shared the session's fastest laps between them with Stoner in third but the Australian is clearly till suffering with his illness, which may now not be anaemia, and abandoned his qualifying with 15 minutes to go.

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