Hayden not too happy with sixth slot

The Ducati rider, whose previous best grid position this year was fourth at a wet Sachsenring last month, placed his Desmosedici in sixth spot but blamed tyre degradation for not doing better.

"It seems the story is always the same," said the 2006 world champion. "Even though this is my best dry qualifying result and second best grid position of the year I still feel I could have gone faster at the end and I'm not completely happy.

"I set a good lap chasing Dani (Pedrosa) but I think the tyre went off right at the end because it started to spin up in the last sector and it cost me some time. Anyway, I'm on the second row and we're competitive so it's not all bad."

Last week's test session at Brno, one of only two allowed throughout the season, allowed Hayden to develop a set-up that he claims it's helping him at the Brickyard.

"I'm using a slightly different set-up here than before Brno - something we found in the test there - and it's definitely helping me through some of these flip-flop direction changes," he explained.

"I know what I'm in for tomorrow and I'm not expecting to find a full second in the morning. The main thing will be to see about the tyre choice if it is a lot cooler, as a lot of people are expecting.

"I'm really looking forward to racing in front of my fans, friends and family here at Indy and the plan is to get the best start possible, try to hang on to that front group as long as I can and just give the absolute maximum."

Hayden's team-mate Mika Kallio, who for the second race is standing in for Casey Stoner, crashed in the closing phases of qualifying and will start in a disappointing 15th place on the grid.

"We started the session well and my first outing on used tyres wasn't too bad," he said. "We tried a different set-up in the middle of the session but it wasn't as good and I switched back.

"When we put a fresh tyre on to push for a lap time I had to abort a couple of laps because there were riders in my way, then I tried to push again and crashed. It was a really similar crash to the one in qualifying at Brno - I just lost front grip and the next thing I knew I was on the floor.

"For some reason my feeling with the front is quite vague and it is an area we know we need to work on. Hopefully we can find something before the race tomorrow."