Hayden hopes for step forward

The American has complained of not feeling confident with the front end of the bike, and matters were not helped in this week's Qatar test when he crashed twice on the second day.

Speaking at the end of the third and final day, where Hayden had seen teammate Dani Pedrosa top the times, he said that he was hoping for a step forward in Spain.

"After yesterday I just needed to come in and do some laps to try to get the feeling back, so today I got comfortable and didn't get too carried away chasing lap times," he said.

"I've been trying to get some more feeling from the front - that's what we're working towards.

"I'd have liked to have gone a bit faster today but we're still positive and we'll go back to work in Jerez and make some improvements.

"Things started out so good on the first morning here - since then it's been a tough couple of days. Sometimes this is a hard a game and you've got to adjust to it - I go away from here healthy and hopefully we'll go to the next test and get some things sorted out with me and the bike."

Pedrosa was keeping his expectations in check, despite the quick time on the final day as teams and riders evaluated qualifying rubber.

"It wasn't only us that had a good test: also Yamaha and Suzuki are fast, Ducati as well," said the Spaniard. "We will continue to see how the tyres work and that's why we cannot relax.

"We wanted to see the performance of the bike at the end of the race and we've got some information about this, which is important. Now we have to keep improving."