Pedrosa breaks hand

The 22-year-old Spaniard lost the front end of his Repsol Honda at the ultra-fast sweeps of turns 10 and 11 during the afternoon and was left in agony in the gravel trap while his bike caught fire after flipping over three times.

After being taken to hospital in Kuala Lumpur for X-rays, Pedrosa, last year's championship runner-up was diagnosed with a hairline fracture of his second metacarpal bone.

Pedrosa had been fastest of the 21 riders at the Malaysian circuit at the time of his crash, but was demoted to second by LCR Honda man Randy de Puniet.

The injury will keep him out of the rest of the test as well as those at Phillip Island next week and back at Sepang in early February. He could be back for the IRTA tests at Jerez in late February though.

"I wasn't pushing so hard at the time of the crash," said Pedrosa. "I lost the front going into Turn 11. It was quite a big crash - the bike caught fire and I hurt my right hand."