Hayden hoped for better than sixth

Although the American's qualifying effort for the San Marino Grand Prix was his second best of a difficult first season with Ducati, he felt a better result had been possible after practice.

"This morning I had a really good feeling with the bike and put together a good rhythm - I was fastest in T4 and that's the first time this year I've been fastest at anything in the dry!" said Hayden.

"I'd hoped to improve and do my best dry qualifying of the year this afternoon but to begin with the track was a little warmer and I didn't get that same level of feeling, so we had to make some tweaks to the set-up. Like I say, I'd hoped to do better than what I did but we got on the second row and our focus turns to tomorrow."

His main concern for the race is the possibility of incidents at the tight first complex of turns.

"I need to get a great start because those first two or three turns are going to be harsh - everybody will be fighting for positions and there's a good chance of some drama there," Hayden said. "We want to get through that cleanly and as high up the order as possible in the early stages."

Hayden's team-mate Mika Kallio, in what should be his last event deputising for Casey Stoner on the other works Ducati, qualified 11th, and also felt he should have done better.

"We have improved by eight tenths of a second on yesterday, which isn't bad but clearly isn't enough because the other guys have improved more," said the Finn.

"We've tried many things this weekend to try and get a better feeling with the front but we're still not getting the feedback we would like and we're struggling to work out why that is.

"Now we need to think carefully about what we try in the morning because confidence is a big issue and if we go completely in the wrong direction it can be damaging. We'll make some small modifications that I hope can be enough to help me push more and get more out of the bike in the race."