Hayden leads rain-affected Qatar test

Strong winds in recent days meant the Losail track was already extremely dusty when the floodlit evening test began, and then a downpour struck an hour into the session.

The track took a long time to dry in the cool conditions, although by the final hour the surface had improved enough to allow several riders to set quicker times.

Hayden, who has so far struggled to get to grips with the Ducati, jumped to the head of the field with a lap of 2:00.717, putting him 0.150 seconds clear of Marco Melandri, as the Hayate Racing-run 2009 Kawasaki made an encouraging debut, just two days after the team's future was secured.

Pramac Ducati duo Mika Kallio and Niccolo Canepa were third and fifth, sandwiching Gresini Honda's Alex de Angelis, while Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) eventually fell to sixth having been fastest of all prior to the rain.

But the results could not be taken as representative given that all the 2009 title favourites decided there was no point running in the conditions.

Both works Yamahas, Ducati's Casey Stoner and Honda's Dani Pedrosa - the quartet generally tipped to fight for this year's championship - opted out of the evening, as did Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, who had been a consistent top three contender in the previous test at Sepang.

The test is scheduled to continue for a further two nights.

                    
Pos  Rider             Bike      Time      Laps
 1.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati    2:00.717  29
 2.  Marco Melandri    Kawasaki  2:00.867  31
 3.  Mika Kallio       Ducati    2:01.020  27
 4.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     2:01.074  15
 5.  Niccolo Canepa    Ducati    2:01.328  21
 6.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    2:01.843  5
 7.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda     2:03.221  18
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     2:03.233  15
 9.  James Toseland    Yamaha    2:03.417  6
10.  Randy De Puniet   Honda     2:03.580  14
11.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    2:03.652  5
12.  Toni Elias        Honda     2:08.637  3
13.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    2:24.832  1
14.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha              0
15.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda               0
16.  Casey Stoner      Ducati              0
17.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki              0