Hayden says his plight is demoralising

The former world champion had hoped he might achieve a breakthrough on his team's home ground but was only 15th today.

"This is a very different circuit to Le Mans and to be honest I was hoping that coming here, to the track where this bike was born, we would be on the pace," said Hayden. "Unfortunately we're not and the truth is we're struggling again."

The American said the issues slowing him at Mugello were totally different to the problems he had previously suffered.

"It's pretty demoralising because every track we go to at the moment seems to cause us different kinds of problems," Hayden explained.

"Here the worst thing is the bumpiness of the surface, which is unsettling a bike that can already be quite unstable. It is hard to change direction when the bike isn't planted and that's a big thing here."

Hayden has been unable to get the Ducati to his liking since joining the team from Honda at the start of 2009, and his progress was also disrupted by a serious crash in qualifying at Losail.

He has yet to qualify or finish above 12th for the team, and is only 15th in the championship after four races.