Rossi was nearly four seconds slower than pole John Hopkins

Rossi struggled to control his bike on and was only able to qualify in 18th place, but he intends to race after testing his injury in the warm-up.

"At the moment he is planning to ride," said a Yamaha team spokeswoman.

John Hopkins claimed his first MotoGP pole after beating Shinya Nakano's time at the end of qualifying.

The American recorded a time of one minute, 36.411 seconds.

Nakano clocked a time of 1:36.24, with Colin Edwards third and world championship leader Nicky Hayden fourth.

Hopkins said: "It's been a long time coming. It's been second, second, third - but it's a huge weight off my shoulders."

Rossi only managed four laps in free practice on Friday and went round slowly in qualifying before going off to rest.

"I tried using some painkillers but the fracture in my right wrist hurts a lot," he said.

"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.

"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."

Rossi was flipped off his bike at 160kph in Thursday's opening free practice and also injured his ankle.