Hayden frustrated with bike's front end

The Repsol Honda rider could manage no better than 14th overall on the rain-affected day, and hinted that he was likely to face a struggle to get on the pace of the front-runners over the rest of the weekend.

"The track was really wet and dirty in this morning's session so we didn't actually get much out of that," said Hayden. "This afternoon it warmed up and dried off and we got to put in a decent number of laps but it wasn't real stellar - the pace isn't where we want it to be.

"The problem is just trying to get the front end to work for me - getting it to steer and finding some confidence in it, especially around turns eight, nine and 10 - the long, long left-hand corner.

"So the weekend hasn't started the way we wanted by any means and it's frustrating. We'll change a few things, maybe look at my transmission ratio because my top speed is a bit down, and try to get towards the front."

Teammate Dani Pedrosa did slightly better to set the ninth best time, and said he hoped the team made a swift breakthrough in finding more performance on Saturday.

"The track conditions today didn't really help us," he said. "There were wet patches for most of the morning session, and even in the afternoon it was still very dusty and the grip levels were not so good.

"The lap times were a little slower than we expected and we had a few issues getting the right balance with the tyres today. We were able to get a lot of information though and we'll look at the ways we can increase the pace tomorrow. We hope to be able to improve things quickly and get to a tyre choice and set-up that allows us to fight in the race.

"Tyres look to be very important here and we'll be working with Michelin to make sure we get the best possible tyre choice and set-up for both riders. We have many things to do before tomorrow but we'll be working very hard to improve our pace and qualifying positions."