Hayden stays positive despite slow start

Hayden, who had a dismal test in Qatar last month, could manage only the 15th quickest time, finishing nearly 1.5 seconds behind Yamaha rival Valentino Rossi, quickest today.

The American rider admitted the first day of work had not been what he had expected, but he was still confident of improvements before Saturday's race.

"It hasn't been the way we really wanted to start the first race weekend of the season," said Hayden, whose Honda incorporates a revised fairing to help him improve his top speed.

"We had a few little issues with one of the bikes this morning which cost us some time.

"The problems I had testing here seem to have followed me back and it feels like I'm still in that little rut with trying to get the front to steer as I want it. It's still early though, so we're confident of improvements as we go on. There are some parts of the track where I feel really good and other parts don't feel that quick.

"So there's a lot of work to do and we'll definitely have a busy night trying to come up with some answers. It's too early to say how the new tyre regulations will work out - we'll find that out on Saturday."

Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa enjoyed a much better day after posting the sixth fastest time, although the Spaniard admitted his set-up still needed improving.

"Today we made some progress and were able to achieve a fairly fast laptime, though we need to make further improvements with the set-up of the bike because we are a little bit behind the leaders," the Spaniard said.

"It's still too early to decide how the new tyre regulations will affect us in the race and we have to work hard with Michelin tonight and tomorrow to choose the best race tyre from the ones we have selected. This will be one of the major goals for tomorrow.

"The condition of the track seems to be improving and we expect it to become a little cleaner still."