Hayden blames faulty wheel sensor

The Repsol Honda rider, whose best laptime was almost half a second slower than his teammate Dani Pedrosa's in second, said changing the sensor during the session made him lose time and rhythm with the qualifying tyres.

"The qualifiers didn't go as we wanted," explained the American. "We had an issue with a front wheel sensor when I went out on my third qualifier, so we had to come in and change the sensor, which lost us some time and some rhythm. Basically we didn't get it done.

"On qualifiers my T1 and T2 times were really good but T3 and T4 weren't so good. It seems like maybe we were a little soft on the front suspension or we've improved the rear so much that maybe it's overworking the front tyre."

Hayden, however, reckons his race pace should be good enough and his Michelin tyres consistent throughout the race.

"At the start of qualifying I was going decent on some pretty used tyres that by the end had race distance on them, so I felt pretty good.

"Looking at tomorrow, I've gotten some good starts this year, we're right in the middle of the third row, so I'm sure there's going to be plenty of drama, plenty of action. I feel like we've got a decent pace, so the race should be okay."