American John Hopkins topped qualifying for the Dutch TT at Assen as MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi struggled at the back of the pack because of injury.
Hopkins set the fastest time of one minute 36.411 seconds on the Rizla Suzuki, with Japan's Shinya Nakano, on the Kawasaki, and American Colin Edwards, on the Camel Yamaha, completing the front row for tomorrow's race at the Dutch circuit.
But Edwards' Italian team-mate Rossi was 18th and slowest in the qualifying session as he battled against the pain of from injuries suffered in a crash during practice at the Dutch circuit yesterday morning.
With championship leader Nicky Hayden fourth quickest on the Repsol Honda, Rossi saw his hopes of retaining his title hit further.
Mechanical and tyre problems at earlier rounds of the series left Rossi trailing American Hayden by 29 points going into tomorrow's Assen race.
The crash left Rossi nursing fractured bones in his right hand and left ankle, making it difficult to ride his machine.
Rossi is due to undergo treatment tonight before deciding after tomorrow's warm-up session if he will take part in the race in the afternoon.
Rossi said: "This afternoon I tried using some painkillers but the fracture in my right wrist hurts a lot. Truly it was very difficult to ride - the hand is very swollen and I don't have much strength. I've had a lot of treatment and I was able to ride for a few laps, but the strong pain stopped me from finishing the qualifying session."
Rossi will not know until just before the race if he is able to take part.
"Tomorrow we will see how I am and, depending on what happens in the warm-up, we will decide whether I will ride or not," he said. "Anyway it's going to be very difficult. We tried to move the brake lever a little bit down and we're now looking at the possibility of making a bigger brake lever to see if this is better for me."
