Hayden sticks with Honda upgrade

He then took the upgraded bike to second on the grid - his best qualifying result of the year.

The world champion's chief engineer Pete Benson admitted that the development parts had not delivered the speed boost that Hayden had hoped for, but said they performed better once the team had adjusted their set-up.

"We have kept all of the parts on the bike that Honda brought over from Japan for this race," Benson said. "They are not bad, but maybe not as good as we expected.

"The new chassis is a small step forward, but in terms of overall settings we have essentially gone a few steps sideways to a setting that we had before Sachsenring and Laguna.

"Those two tracks had new surfaces and we struggled, whereas at Assen we went well - the last time we were on a familiar surface. It is that setting we essentially have in the bike."

Hayden's second place in Brno qualifying is his first front row start of the season, and the first time all year that he has out-qualified teammate Dani Pedrosa.

He is also closer to the smaller Pedrosa on top speed this weekend. For most of the year Pedrosa has been 5km/h quicker than Hayden on the straights, but at Brno the gap is just 1-2km/h.