"We can confirm that he has more than two centimetres of skin missing from his fourth finger"

Race winning MotoGP rookie Jorge Lorenzo is recovery well from his Friday accident at the Circuit de Catalunya, in which he sustained head trauma and hand injuries, although it has also been confirmed that he will require a skin graft.

"After further observation we are pleased to say that the cranial trauma that Jorge suffered on Friday has improved without any further complications," commented Dr. Xavier Mir of the Institut Dexues in Barcelona. "This still needs to be verified with another CAT scan, however, and for this reason we have moved Jorge to another part of the hospital this [Sunday] afternoon.

"Regarding other injuries, we have evaluated the abrasion on his right hand and we can confirm that he has more than two centimetres of skin missing from his fourth finger. For this reason we have decided that it will be necessary to make a skin graft, which will probably take place tomorrow [Monday] morning."

The 21-year-old Fiat Yamaha rider was ruled out of his home Catalan Grand Prix after a 130km/h fall on Friday afternoon.

Lorenzo, who took three poles and three podiums - including one win - from his first three premier-class races, had previously sustained fractures to both ankles during practice at round four in Shanghai.

Despite missing Sunday's race, which was won by arch-rival Dani Pedrosa, Lorenzo has retained third in the world championship standings - although he is now 48 points behind team-mate Valentino Rossi and just two points clear of fourth placed Casey Stoner.

Round eight of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship, the British Grand Prix at Donington Park, takes place on June 22.