McWilliams 'gutted' at Qatar withdraw.

42-year-old Jeremy McWilliams was left 'totally gutted' by the difficult decision to withdraw from Saturday's season opening Qatar Grand Prix - but had little choice.

McWilliams suffered a spectacular highside at the end of Friday's qualifying session at Losail, during which he knocked his previously fractured left femur and irritated the muscle around the healing bone causing an extremely painful haematoma in his thigh.

McWilliams attended the medical centre first thing on Saturday morning where he received pain relief treatment and was strongly advised against competing. McWilliams hoped that by missing Saturday morning's warm-up he could later make it out on to the grid, but was in so much pain that he was reluctantly forced to withdraw.

"I'm totally gutted that I couldn't race," said the 42-year-old Ulsterman, who broke his left femur, collarbone and some ribs in a testing accident last November. "We made great progress on the bike at the test in Jerez and here on Thursday then we were cruelly dealt a blow [on Friday] - we definitely didn't need that. I've been sat watching the race and looking at our lap times from the past few days and we would have had a good chance of scoring points today - that's very frustrating for me.

"The decision not to race was really hard for me but when you have a medical professional telling you that you will do more harm than good if you race then you really don't have a choice - I had to look at the bigger picture and think about Jerez [round two]. After I spoke with the doctor, I took some time out, sat in a room and tried to see what I could do with my leg and it was then that I realised there was no way that I could race."

McWilliams' team-mate Andrew Pitt may have made the race, but he didn't fare much better; the Australian, who started from last on grid, trundled around in that position until lap 16 of 22 - when a terminal technical problem put the X3 out of its misery.

"I'm really disappointed," said the former WSBK race winner. "We did so well on Thursday, things were looking good but [Friday] and today left a lot to be desired. I had a bad start and I was having problems with corner entry which really slowed me down - I decided that my best plan of action was to just maintain a steady speed and finish the race however the bike had other ideas. I know that the team are working hard to solve the problems that we've experienced in the past few days - the test [on Sunday] will definitely help."

"I'm very disappointed," added team principal Mario Illien. "The team have worked so hard and we have made some positive changes to the bike - I was expecting better today after the pace we managed to achieve over the past couple of days but we were a couple of seconds down on our own time let alone anyone else's. We have to concentrate now on identifying the weak areas where we have gone adrift and making some serious improvements ahead of Jerez."