Craner Curves catch out McGuinness.

For the second meeting in succession, John McGuinness was in the wars as a fall during qualifying meant he was unable to participate in the penultimate round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park.

A high-speed get off at the infamous Craner Curves resulted in a deep flesh wound to his left forearm and significant damage to his ribs, leading to a disappointing and abrupt end to the weekend for McGuinness and the Vitrans Honda team.

Friday's free practice session was held in damp conditions but the weather was perfect throughout qualifying although problems with the rear suspension, whereby a wrong decision had been made with the settings, meant that time was lost in the opening session. Subsequently, John was languishing in 24th place almost three seconds off the pace but both team and rider were confident of moving up the time sheets in the second and final session.

McGuinness soon shaved a second off his time on the Honda Fireblade to move himself comfortably inside the top 20 but half way through the session, he went down hard at over 130mph through the Craner Curves, and wore the skin on his left arm right down to the muscles.

The fall also left McGunniess with two displaced ribs and although he went out in Sunday's morning warm up, the rib injury meant it wasn't safe to race and he reluctantly withdrew from the two 20-lap races.

"What can I say, it's so disappointing and frustrating, not only for myself but for the whole team and I feel like I've let them all down," he said. "I was confident of scoring some points this weekend but the front tucked under at Craner Curves without warning and the resulting injuries were just too much for me to be able to race. The series doctors said that I'll probably need to have a skin graft on my arm but although that was sore, it wasn't what kept me out.

"I must have broken or dislocated a couple of ribs in the fall as they're sticking out of the left side of my chest and although I tried and wanted to ride, morning warm-up proved that it wasn't a possibility and we decided to call it a day after four laps. The team have been great and have worked really hard so it's shame for everyone but that's racing and hopefully, we'll have better fortune at Brands Hatch in two weeks time."

Although the final round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch isn't until 9 October, McGuinness faces a race against time to be fit for the annual Stars at Darley meeting this weekend, where he is due to line up on the Hawk Kawasaki.