Espargaro delighted with progress

The 20-year-old Spaniard has been brought into the Pramac Ducati line-up while usual rider Mika Kallio deputises for Casey Stoner in the factory team, and having finishing 13th from 16th on the grid at Indianapolis, he impressed the paddock with his pace in today's session, where he was faster than his team-mate Niccolo Canepa.

"I'm very happy," Espargaro told the official MotoGP website. "At Indy we did a great job. I tried to understand a lot of things during the race, and I think we arrived here stronger than at Indianapolis."

He said his best times in practice at Misano had come after he had calmed his riding style following an anxious start.

"Today I started a little bit nervous and I made a lot of mistakes, I went wide out of corners," Espargaro explained. "Then when I stopped in the pits I tried to be a little bit more calm and the final run was good."

He ended the day only 1.822s behind pace-setter Valentino Rossi's Yamaha, and is confident that he will continue to improve through the weekend.

"We are less than two seconds from the top time, and less than a second from the first Ducati, and this is important," said Espargaro. "The team has done a great job because step by step we are always improving my problems."