Hayden pleased with first day at Donington

The former champion ended the day as Casey Stoner's nearest challenger, albeit six tenths of a second adrift, and is encouraged by the feeling he's getting from the new engine.

"I really wanted to use the new engine here and they said I could use it as long as I was in the top three or four," he said. "I was fifth this morning and second this afternoon so that kinda evens out.

"The engine is pretty aggressive, it's a little bit quicker, so it's nice to be up near the front of the speed traps. I also had a new chassis today which felt better, it's a little bit of an improvement stability-wise."

Hayden's teammate Dani Pedrosa, who lies second in the championship, struggled in the morning but improved in the afternoon to sixth place, despite a highside at Redgate Corner.

"We were trying to concentrate two days of work on set-up and tyre choice into today because the weather forecast says it may rain tomorrow," said the Spaniard.

"I think maybe we were using too hard a rear tyre when I crashed, but I didn't do anything serious in the fall so I got back out on the track as quickly as I could.

"We are still struggling a bit here, but we have some ideas for tomorrow so we hope we can get as much dry time as possible."