Motorsport: Capirossi crashes at Assen

AMSTERDAM - Suzuki's Italian rider Loris Capirossi was ruled out of Saturday's Dutch MotoGP race after crashing and suffering a deep gash to his right forearm in practice.

Capirossi had missed the previous British round with a broken hand. The team said he would not be replaced for the TT race at Assen.

"The crash was nothing to do with his recent hand injury and it was just one of those things that happens in racing," team manager Paul Denning said in a statement.

"He was lucky that he didn4t break anything or cause more damage to the original injury because it is a really fast place to crash.

"Unfortunately the bike got on top of him and ripped a sizeable piece of flesh from his right forearm."

MotoGP doctors operated on the wound at the circuit and Denning was confident Capirossi would be back for the next round in Germany in two weeks time.

Ducati's Australian world champion Casey Stoner was fastest in both practice sessions.

- REUTERS