Pedrosa boosted by fastest wet time

The Spaniard set his best time early on in the session before the heaviest of the rain, but continued to lap as quick as anyone throughout the wettest part of the hour.

"This was a very good start to the weekend and in wet conditions we are looking in good shape," said Pedrosa. "It was raining for the whole session and we had good grip, even though there were some big patches of standing water around the track.

"I felt confident and was able to push hard - and actually it's been a quite long time since I've felt that confident in wet conditions and been happy to push to the maximum."

Pedrosa is confident that he can maintain his strong pace should the weather stay dry for tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions.

"If it's dry tomorrow, that's also good for us, even though the only thing we can really take forward from today's session is the gearing information," he added. "This track is unusual to ride because it's been designed to run in the other direction and so the apex of some of the corners feel very strange. Still, even in the rain there is a unique atmosphere here and it's a special place to ride."

Pedrosa's team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was in the top three early in the session, but had fallen to ninth by the end when several other riders improved their times at the end.

"I was fast early in the session and overall I'm satisfied with how today went," said Dovizioso. "It was a difficult practice session because it was raining a lot and the different types of tarmac at this track responded in a different way. There were also some big puddles out there which made things tricky.

"At the beginning I was riding with a good rhythm and going quickly, but I couldn't improve my lap time at the end of the session because we decided to use only one tyre and spare our wet tyre allocation for the weekend. I'm not worried about today's position though."