It was an incident-filled first qualifying session for Fortuna Yamaha riders Carlos Checa and M⛄arco Melandri, with both fallin🌺g from their YZR-M1 - one of which exploded into flames.

The combination of track temperatures as high as 46 degrees and a slick surf🌺ace claimed a fair share of victims today, with Melandri the second to fall (after to Troy Bayliss) when he highsided in the opening minutes, his machine then catching fire as it lay iღn the gravel trap.

"I lost t꧒h♐e rear of the bike and highsided on turn seven," said Melandri. "It was very strange because it seemed like the rear was just going to slide out a bit and then I could carry on, which also happened in this morning's practice. But I lost it a bit, and then completely."

That put the 21-year-old's preferred mach🍒ine out of action and the reigning 250cc World Champion was left with only one bike for the remainder of the hour-long session, limiting the amount he could achieve in such a short time. As a result Melandri completed only 15 laps, fini🌊shing with the 14th quickest time.

"I took my second bike out, but it didn't have the same feeling, I don't know why. I a🤡lso nearly fell off again on the last corner as Jacque came very close, which was quite scary," he revealed. "This morning everything felt okay with our Motegi base set-up. We made some modifications since then but lost time this afternoon. I think we can improve tomorrow."

Meanwhile, after producing the third fastest time this afternoon, Checa looked set for a front row performance - especially after improving further in the closing stages. Unfortunately f♛or the Spaniard, he would lowside his M1 while entering the tight right-hand turn one.

Unable to continue with the damaged machine Checa was forced back to the pits to mount his number two bike, but lacked the time to defend his provisional front row✤ start. The 30-year-old currently sits eighth on the grid after some rider used qualifying tyre in the final minutes.

"It's a shame th♉at I fell off towards the end of the session because I was going really well," said the regretful Checa. "It was my own fault. We lost a lot of time this morning because of the rain and we only had about 20 minutes of real testing but I had a good rhythm in those 20 minutes.

"We have been using my basic set-up from Motegi but have made some small alterations. I'm so annoyed with myself for falling because I knew that my second bike wasn't totally ready in the same set-up, and it just didn't feel as good as my first bike," he added. "I'm confide🥃nt that I can find a good rhythm for tomorrow and should improve my time by quite a lot."