On an overcast day which saw light showers at the scene of Saturday’s A-Style TT Assen, the MotoGP riders took to the Dutch track for their first practice sessions at the newly modified “Cathedral of motorcycling”. The day was not without incident, as two spectacular crashes in the premier class gave the day its major talking points. Valentino Rossi’s initial acquaintance with the circuit lasted just six laps, before he high-sided his Yamaha M1 on and was taken immediately to the Clinica Mobile, sitting out the rest of the 90 minute first contact with the Assen Circuit. At 11.15am local time the Italian was taken to the Assen Hospital, where he was diagnosed with chest contusions, hairline fractures to the right hand and left ankle and a haematoma on his right elbow. Rossi underwent a CAT scan at the Dutch hospital and, after having been given the all-clear on damage to his chest, took part in the afternoon practice. Toni Elias was another victim of a first day incident, suffering a fracture at the head of the humerus of his left shoulder. The Spaniard has already returned home to Barcelona to be examined by Dr Xavier Mir. After initially being treated in Clinica Mobile, Elias was able to return to the first practice. However, he was later diagnosed as being unfit to race. In the practices themselves, Colin Edwards earned the best time of the day, a 1’38.144 lap which put him one tenth of a second ahead of surprise package Carlos Checa, also on a Yamaha, but on Dunlop tyres compared to Edwards’ Michelins. Third place went to Casey Stoner, ahead of the continually resurgent Kenny Roberts Jr. Randy de Puniet occupied fifth ahead of Suzuki’s John Hopkins. Chris Vermeulen, on one of the few tracks on the calendar with which he is familiar (albeit in its former configuration), was seventh fastest, ahead of Makoto Tamada, Shinya Nakano and Nicky Hayden. The day also saw the debut of Alex Hofmann on the Ducati, standing in for Sete Gibernau, and Ivan Silva for Pramac d’Antin. Marco Melandri also decided to ride after his participation was placed in doubt by the heavy crash in Catalunya. 250cc Jorge Lorenzo occupies the provisional polespot in the 250cc category, ahead of morning session leader Alex de Angelis by more than three tenths of a second with a lap of 1’41.329. Alex Debon occupies third, continuing his substitution for injured Fortuna Aprilia rider Hector Barbera, ahead of World Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso, Czech rider Jakub Smrz and Shuhei Aoyama. 125cc Lukas Pesek took provisional pole in Assen after clocking the fastest time in a rain-affected 125cc qualifying session. The Czech rider rode the day’s quickest lap, beating that of team-mate Nico Terol from the morning practice session. Alvaro Bautista, Terol, Mika Kallio and Hector Faubel all joined Pesek in the top five. MotoGP 1st position Colin Edwards (Yamaha), 1’38.144 : “The bike felt great today and it was easy to ride from the first moment I went out onto the track. Even with the changes this circuit still has plenty of banking and it creates its own load, so that saves a lot of time with the setting and you can more or less ride anything here. I’ve ridden a lot of inferior bikes to the M1 here and had a few problems but this is such a great bike we’ve barely had to touch it.” “I’ve always gone well here and it’s a circuit I’ve always liked but it seems that from the first time I raced here in about 1995 they have made some kind of change to spoil the track. It was a strange day because of that and because of the injury to my team-mate. I was glad to see him back in the garage this afternoon and hopefully we can work together to go much faster tomorrow.” 12th position Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), 1’39.458 : “I’m okay and I would like everyone to relax about it, even if it’s been quite hard for me to ride. I have a little fracture on my left foot but especially the little fracture on my right wrist so when I give gas and brake it’s really hard. I don’t have much power or feeling. Plus I took a big bruise on my thorax and I couldn’t breathe well for a long time and it’s still quite hard to breathe now. I had all the examinations necessary to check if everything was okay and with some painkillers I was able to ride this afternoon.” 19th position Toni Elias (Honda), 1’48.919 : “I’m really disappointed about the injury, the season hasn’t been great so far but this is definitely the lowest point – but it’s not the end of the world. I’d like to thank the Clinica Mobile for getting me back out on track this morning, but in the end I realised I couldn’t continue. I’ll fly back to Barcelona and the Dexeus Hospital today, but I don’t know when I’ll be back in action yet.”