• Italian returns just six weeks after breaking his leg
• Team-mate Jorge Lorenzo on pole in German grand prix

Valentino Rossi, back in defence of his MotoGP title just six weeks after breaking his leg, needed the help of a crutch to walk to his bike before practice at the German grand prix – but still earned fifth place on the grid for tomorrow's race.

Rossi, originally told he could expect to be out for up to five months after the accident at his home Italian grand prix, has only missed three of the subsequent races and has 11 remaining grands prix in which to reassert himself. The 31-year-old Italian is seventh in the rankings on 61 points. His Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo – in pole position for the race in Berlin – leads with 165.

"I have suffered more today because we've had two sessions instead of one and I have some pain and I'm more tired than yesterday," Rossi said. "But I feel good and my movement is OK.

"For tomorrow of course there is a question mark but I hope to be able to finish; I think the podium will be difficult for me but top five would be a very good result," added the nine-times world champion in all categories.

Lorenzo's pole was the Spaniard's fourth in a row and the championship leader did it with his back-up bike after the machine he started on blew its engine and caught fire, laying a trail of oil down the Sachsenring straight.

With flames flickering around his feet, Lorenzo steered the bike over to the wall and clambered off but others were less fortunate.

American Ben Spies and France's Randy De Puniet both skidded on the oil at speeds in excess of 250kph, their crashes at turn one forcing the session to be red flagged with 25 minutes remaining as marshals cleared up the mess.

The 1993 world champion, Kevin Schwantz, told British Eurosport that he had advised Rossi to go easy but doubted that he would.

"I said: 'Maybe this weekend here at Sachsenring because it is so physical maybe just go a little tranquillo,'" he said. "And he looked at me with somewhat of a smirk on his face and said: 'Maybe.'

"He obviously feels really good, they've done a great job getting that bone lined up and putting the pin in it. But it is a young enough break that if he fell again it could easily do some worse damage to it," added the Texan.

"Watching him ride the first section of the weekend, he looks even smoother than he normally looks. So I don't think he's out there really pushing the envelope, this is just a track he has always kind of liked."