'Warrior' Barros 'loses some meat'.

The Brazilian suffered a nasty highside during Friday morning's free practice session at the Sachsenring - throwing him from his bucking Desmosedici, which then fell on his arm. Barros and bike slid as one into the gravel trap, at which point the bike rolled right over the MotoGP veteran before he could shake himself free.

Barros went straight to the Clinica Mobile to have flesh damage to his right hand treated. The tough former 500cc, MotoGP and WSBK race winner then returned in the afternoon and went on to set the seventh fastest lap time!

"I don't really know what happened, but I'm quite sure that the bike had some kind of problem," revealed Barros on Friday evening. "From the first turn I felt that something was a little off, but I continued on the lap. When I arrived at the fastest turn on the track, the bike slipped out from under me and I went down hard. It was a bad accident because my right hand was trapped under the bike, and as we slid off track I lost some meat from my right hand.

"I would like to say thanks to the Clinica Mobile's doctors for the excellent job they did. I've now got stitches and a rubber tube inserted to relieve the pressure and fluid build-up in my hand, and because of this, I was able to get back out on the track today. When I first got up from the crash, I knew I had hurt my hand pretty badly, and after I took off my glove, I thought I wouldn't be able to ride. I'm in pain, but I'm a warrior, and I'm happy to be able to continue racing this weekend," he declared.

Barros' accident marked the second right-hand injury to befall the satellite Ducati team - team-mate Alex Hofmann having recently had his hand shut in a car door, requiring surgery. Despite the swelling and discomfort, Hofmann will ride in his home race and set the 13th fastest Friday time.

"I wanted to be at top condition for this race, but last week I had a strange accident to my right hand and now I can't ride like I want to," he confirmed. "In spite of this, I'm just happy to be riding, because I wasn't sure I would be able to compete this weekend. This is my home race, and for me it's very important to be here on track. Fortunately, after an operation, my hand isn't so bad and thanks to my physiotherapy I can ride without too many difficulties. Today we didn't make a lot of laps because we wanted to fully understand my physical condition first, but in the end it was a positive day because we found a good base set-up that gives me confidence. I'm sure that tomorrow we will improve."