PICS: Alvaro Bautista's huge highside

Alvaro Bautista was fortunate to walk away from this huge highside during Saturday morning practice at the Indianapolis MotoGP.

However the incident did end the Gresini Honda rider's chances of a top ten lap time and direct access to Qualifying 2.

Instead, the battered and bruised Spaniard rode to fourth place, for 14th on the grid, in the Qualifying 1 session.

"Luckily I'm feeling okay now, but this morning's crash was really scary; I had a high side and I think I have been flying for several seconds...

"However, like I said I'm physically fit, I'm just disappointed because the feeling with the bike is not the best; we have been struggling a lot with rear grip and this is the cause of the crash I had in FP3.

"In this condition I cannot ride, because if I try to go a little bit faster I risk to crash, like it happened this morning. This is frustrating. For sure tomorrow we will face a tough race, but we will try our best, as always."

Alvaro Bautista has a big slide, which goes badly wrong when the rear tyre bites (1)

Bautista is kicked from the seat (2)

The huge forces involved send Bautista flying over the handlebars (3)

Bautista is still rising as his bike hits the ground Qatar (4)

After landing heavily on his arms and shoulder, Bautista slides off the track (5)