Valentino Rossi’s crash in the Japanese Grand Prix

Valentino Rossi’s crash in the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday aggravated an old injury in his left hand, team mate Hayden will take his place in testing the GP12.

 Although the initial examination suggested otherwise, Rossi’s first lap crash produced a hairline fracture at the site of an injury from a fall at Assen in 1995. The severity of the pain and swelling in the little finger of his left hand has ruled out the Italian’s participation in testing the Ducati Desmosedici GP12, therefore Nicky Hayden will take his place in Thursday’s test of the machine at Jerez.

This will be the last of an extra eight days the team has been allowed to test the 2012 machine, the next testing for Ducati will be at the Official Test following the Valencia GP.