Clifford: It's fun until someone gets hurt.

The WCM team's belated 2003 MotoGP debut proved to be an incident packed affair, with the ten-year-old Yamaha two-strokes - called up to temporarily replace the teams controversial four-stroke racer - spitting off, and injurying, both riders over the British GP weekend.

Home hero Chris Burns suffered the most, falling early in Sunday's race at the fast Coppice corner, which precedes the back straight.

The 23 year old injured his shoulder in the accident, putting his planned ride in the British Superbike Championship this weekend in doubt - but he hopes to be fit for the German GP in two weeks time.

"I am so disappointed, crashing on the second lap of my MotoGP debut," sighed Burns. "I got a reasonable start, got off the line quickly and lost it coming onto the back straight out of Coppice Corner, the engine misfired and the power came on suddenly, lit up the rear tyre and I was gone.

"My helmet is finished, totally destroyed and I've injured my collarbone (again)," he revealed. "Its not completely broken, just cracked so I will have some laser treatment on it this week, so I'm ready for Germany. This is my 5th collarbone injury now..."

Team-mate David de Gea had fallen victim to the peaky two-stroke power delivery a day earlier, being flung 2 metres in the air in a spectacular high-side. Despite the inevitable impact that followed, the Spaniard still rode on Sunday - but his problems continued.

"There were some problems with my bike during the sighting lap, so I pulled back into the garage and the mechanics tried to find the problem, they changed the silencer and I missed the warm up lap, but started the race from the grid," he explained.

"Again, more problems with the bike, I was losing power every lap and after 10 laps, I pulled into the garage - the exhaust had cracked," he added. "During the race, I tried to learn as much about the ROC Yamaha as I could, so I can advance more in Germany and at least have some more feeling for the bike for the next race.

"After my big crash on Saturday, I've got some pain in my back, so I will see my Doctor in Spain and rest up," said David. "My team have worked very hard to have my bike ready for me this weekend, and I thank them for the many hours of work they have done for me."

For team manager Peter Clifford the team's first race this season proved almost as stressful as his efforts to get the Harris WCM four-stroke accepted for race entry by the FIM - but at least both riders believe they'll be fit for Germany.

"It's all fun until someone gets hurt," said Clifford. "We were fortunate in that Chris's broken collarbone and David's practice crash could have been worse. We know we have a lot of work to do on the motorcycles before Germany, but we know what we've got to achieve. Chris is keen to ride at the Sachsenring, but there will be certainly no pressure from us."