Hayden says injury slowing him down

The Repsol Honda rider was forced to miss the race after injuring his foot at an X Games event in Los Angeles.

Hayden was back in action today at Misano, where the American finished as 11th fastest in practice.

The former world champion said he was still in pain when turning right.

"Things went pretty decent, considering," said Hayden. "Not fantastic or nothing, but the bike was working pretty good, the tyres were working a lot better than they have the last couple of weeks, so a big thanks to Michelin for doing a good job here.

"It's not the most pleasant ride of my life, but I expected that. In some of the right-hand corners I'm probably not as quick as I should be, but in T2 and T4 which are pretty much all left-hand corners I'm one of the quickest.

"In some of the rights the injury is a little bit of a hindrance, but it's not a big deal. I don't want to be a drama queen and make a big deal of it, I'm not the first guy who's ridden injured. It's just the way it is and the main thing is that it's good to be back."

Teammate Dani Pedrosa completed a low-key day for Repsol Honda, the Spaniard finishing in 12th position as he continues to work on returning to form after his injury.

"It's been a difficult but important day," said Pedrosa. "We're not happy with the result but I am happy because we are working to get me back into my rhythm which I had lost after missing Laguna, doing no real training in the summer break and then having lots of problems at Brno.

"We had a long debrief at the end of today, analysing all the data, and for sure we can improve our lap times tomorrow.

"Conditions here are quite extreme, it's very hot. We have been testing some new tyres and we still have more to test tomorrow, when we will see what kind of shape we'll be in for the race. We will keep working hard."