Motorcycling: Rossi vows to race on after breaking thumb in Donington crash

Valentino Rossi, the World Championship leader who had been expected to dominate tomorrow's British Grand Prix at Donington Park, yesterday crashed spectacularly in the first practice session. He was taken to hospital with fractured left thumb and a bruised hip but, with final doctor's approval, he intends taking part in today's practice and the race tomorrow.

Not so lucky was his Honda team-mate, Tohru Ukawa, who lies second in the championship. He crashed even more frighteningly on the fast Craner Curves and was fortunate to escape with his life as his machine cartwheeled over his head. Injuries to his ribs and foot will keep him out of tomorrow's race.

Rossi had posted the fastest time of the morning practice before falling as he lost control of his 990cc V5machine which, although almost unbeatably fast this season was, according to the rider himself, not yet perfect in its handling.

The riders were taken to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, but Rossi soon returned to say that although he was in pain, as much from the bruised hip as the thumb, he felt able to compete. No stranger to crashes, the 23-year-old has great resilience and spirit.

"I don't remember exactly what happened. The last thing I remember was seeing Ukawa's crash and just after I see a flash of myself flying," Rossi said. "I have a headache now and I have a fracture in my left thumb that is very painful. I hope that it won't affect my riding tomorrow but until I ride I won't know."

Ukawa, who had not broken any bones, remained overnight in hospital for further precautionary tests.

In the absence of the top two Honda riders, the later free practice resulted in the Brazilian Alex Barros (Honda) taking provisional pole position in 1min 31.877sec ahead of Kenny Roberts and Max Biaggi. The highly promising American teenager John Hopkins was fourth, but it was the earlier session that could have left a severely depleted field. As well as Rossi and Ukawa, Biaggi, Barros and Sete Gibernau also had falls but with less serious results. The British rider Jeremy McWilliams was steadier and in the afternoon gained the sixth-fastest time.

Until Rossi's crash everything pointed to his almost certain continuation of a highly successful season. As if his Honda's superiority and his personal big points advantage in the championship were not enough, he had arrived at Donington saying how much he liked the circuit. In future he may have to give it more respect and fall in line with most of the other riders who find it uncomfortable, with its disconcerting bumps, formidably fast sections and one so slow that they call it the "car park".

Rossi had talked of a red-blooded, bad-tempered rivalry between himself and his fellow Italian Biaggi, but Biaggi himself had admitted that, to put it mildly, his chances of consistently beating the Hondas this season seem remote. He said that his Yamaha is some way behind the V5s because it is not proving versatile enough.

The Honda is clearly the best of the new four-stroke machines that have come back into the grand prix scene this season. The only other rider to beat Rossi in this term is Ukawa, but that was three months ago. Rossi has 180 points while Ukawa has only 108.

Apart from McWilliams, British interest this weekend will mainly be in the lower-capacity classes. Leon Haslam has gained only one point in seven 250cc grands prix this season, but knows Donington as well as his own back garden. However, Jay Vincent's Honda is not up with the pace. In the 125cc class, the 15-year-old schoolboy from Herefordshire, Chaz Davies, has an outside chance of getting in the points.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX (Donington Park) First qualifying session: MotoGP: 1 A Barros (Br) Honda 1min 31.877sec; 2 K Roberts (US) Suzuki 1:32.123; 3 M Biaggi (It) Yamaha 1:32.197; 4 J Hopkins (US) Yamaha 1:32.523; 5 C Checa (Sp) Yamaha 1:32.541; 6 J McWilliams (GB) Proton KR 1:32.602; 7 N Abe (Japan) Yamaha 1:32.695; 8 S Nakano (Japan) Yamaha 1:32.810; 9 D Kato (Japan) Honda 1:32.850; 10 T Harada (Japan) Honda 1:32.900. 250cc: 1 F Nieto (Sp) Aprilia 1:33.679; 2 M Melandri (It) Aprilia 1:34.339; 3 T Elias (Sp) Aprilia 1:34.360; 4 R Rolfo (It) Honda 1:35.174; 5 S Porto (Arg) Yamaha min 35.299sec; 6 F Battaini (It) Aprilia 1:35.309; 7 H Aoki (Japan) Honda 1:35.313; 8 R De Puniet (Fr) Aprilia 1:35.324; 9 N Matsudo (Japan) Yamaha 1:35.425; 10 E Alzamora (Sp) Honda 1:35.509. 125cc: 1 M Poggiali (S Marino) Gilera 1min 38.078sec; 2 D Pedrosa (Sp) Honda 1:38.437; 3 Y Ui (Japan) Derbi 1:38.606; 4 A De Angelis (S Marino) Aprilia 1:38.858; 5 L Cecchinello (It) Aprilia 1:38.989; 6 A Vincent (Fr) Aprilia 1:39.035; 7 M Azuma (Japan) Honda 1:39.103; 8 P Nieto (Sp) Aprilia 1:39.179; 9 G Borsoi (It) Aprilia 1:39.207; 10 A Dovizioso (It) Honda 1:39.395.