Lucky escape for Simoncelli

Marco Simoncelli admitted he got off lightly after suffering a heavy fall in FIM MotoGP World Championship testing at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia on Friday.

The Honda Gresini rider crashed in the early afternoon, grazing his elbow, left thigh and severely bruising the little finger on his left hand.

Despite the pain, Simoncelli went back out on track to continue his work and competed the day with a best time of two minutes 3.245seconds, four-tenths slower than experienced team-mate Marco Melandri.

Wet weather on Friday morning was another hindrance to the team's efforts, but Simoncelli was nevertheless satisfied come the end of the day.

"The first half of the day was relatively difficult because we couldn't get the bike to work properly and lost lots of time, then to top it off I had a crash," he said.

"I had gone out with new tyres and after half a lap I came back in because of the same problems. I did a technical check and I went out once more.

"In the first left-hander although I was really paying attention - maybe not enough - the bike catapulted me off. I hit the asphalt hard and thinking about it now I was lucky just to get a few grazes, it could have been a lot worse.

"Later we went back to work in the afternoon and things were much more positive as the bike felt much improved and I was able to ride it better than Thursday, the feeling was better and the time I did wasn't by chance.

"Now we need to organise our ideas and think about a plan of attack for the next tests so I'm going home with high morale."