Factory Yamaha rider Ben Spies was left bruised with a possible cracked rib after a massive, 170mph get-off at Phillip Island's third corner in MotoGP qualifying this morning and was forced to go to the medical centre by his team.

The laid-back Texan didn't want to miss any track time so initially said he wasn't going to go and be examined but after being told he wouldn't be allowed back on track unless he attended, the former World Superbike Champion complied - for five minutes.

"I got a little bit off line, hit a big bump and lost the front. It was unfortunate as we were trying a different bike setup that was hopefully going to be good but on the third lap I went through the gravel trap at 270km/h (167mph) so that was pretty quick. I did a bunch of flapping around and my knees and elbows are all bruised up but, you know, that's normal," said Spies, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

"The rocks in the gravel trap are way too big and they hurt a lot. It got me on all ends. My rib is the biggest thing, I don't know if it's bruised or cracked or what and it hurts pretty bad. I'm a little pissed off with myself. I wasn't going to go to the medical centre but they made me or they weren't going to let me back on track. I was there for five minutes then left.

"They didn't want to let me get back on the bike as I took a pretty good hit to the head but I jumped back on and got rolling ok. It wasn't great but it was good enough. We missed out on a set of tyres, we only had one set to do our fast time on but we're right there. We've definitely got the speed, we just made a mistake in the beginning."