Hayden tops damp opening practice

Shinya Nakano and Jorge Lorenzo set the pace early in the session, swapping top position between them, before Hayden took over at the top fifteen minutes into the session.

It was a place he never relinquished, lowering his own mark a couple of minutes later, before coming out again in the second half of the session and setting four fast laps in a row, each one setting the new benchmark for the session, with Hayden's best of 1:59.773 becoming the time to beat with just under a third of the session remaining.

It was a time no-one even got close to until the last two minutes of the session, when Ducati's Casey Stoner, who spent most of the session languishing down the order, set a time of 2:00.589 to be just over a second slower than Hayden to move into second.

Seconds later championship leader Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha pipped him with a 2:00.304, who went for another fast lap at the end and got under the two-minute barrier with a 1:59.892, having been up on Hayden's time in the first two sectors of the lap.

Jorge Lorenzo and Sylvain Guintoli completed the top five on another Yamaha and Ducati respectively, with early pacesetter Shinya Nakano sixth ahead of Toni Elias and wet-weather specialist Anthony West.

Chris Vermeulen's tenth was the best for Suzuki, as Japanese rider Kousuke Akiyoshi and Loris Capirossi struggled to set a fast time, ending the session in fifteenth and sixteenth.

With his teammate fastest on Michelins, Dani Pedrosa must be wondering if his switch to Bridgestone tyres was the right move, as he struggled again, over four seconds off the pace in eighteenth position.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:59.773 
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:59.892 + 0.119
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  2:00.589 + 0.816
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  2:00.696 + 0.923
 5.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  2:00.859 + 1.086
 6.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  2:00.996 + 1.223
 7.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  2:01.370 + 1.597
 8.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  2:01.455 + 1.682
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  2:01.527 + 1.754
10.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  2:01.628 + 1.855
11.  Alex De Angelis   Honda     (B)  2:01.683 + 1.910
12.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  2:02.225 + 2.452
13.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  2:02.263 + 2.490
14.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  2:02.451 + 2.678
15.  Kousuke Akiyoshi  Suzuki    (B)  2:02.688 + 2.915
16.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  2:03.235 + 3.462
17.  Randy De Puniet   Honda     (M)  2:03.396 + 3.623
18.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (B)  2:04.078 + 4.305
19.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  2:04.896 + 5.123