Dovizioso delighted with pace on Friday

The Italian, still on Team JiR Scot's satellite Honda RC212V for another three races until he can don the famous Repsol leathers, was fourth fastest in the dry opening hour.

But he stepped his game up further in the afternoon to go second fastest in the wet second session, 0.755s off the pace of the man he will replace in 2009, Nicky Hayden.

"Today's was a good result, with us immediately going fast in the wet, with a steady pace that left me in first place in the standings until I returned to the pit-box at the end of the session," said Dovizioso. "We used data that we acquired during the winter test before the season started, where we spent an hour in the rain and this proved to be a good starting point for us.

"Even in the dry we went well, but we are still aiming to improve. The times we did today are similar to those made in the test, but the weather conditions were better, with higher temperatures, but today was cooler.

"In the wet, we tried some new tyres from Michelin, which worked very well," he added. "Phillip Island is a track where speed counts, with the bike spending time in some long curves with little throttle movement to use up before full throttle.

"These are characteristics which our bike is handling well."