Nicky Hayden escapes injury in Valencia first-corner collision

The American was one of four riders caught up in the collision, which happened when Alvaro Bautista's Suzuki and Andrea Dovizioso's Honda made light contact, sending Bautista into Hayden, his Ducati team-mate Valentino Rossi, and Pramac Ducati rider Randy de Puniet.

"I felt some riders coming up the inside really fast as we approached Turn 1. Then something happened and it was just the domino effect - race over in the first corner," said Hayden, who went for x-rays on his right hand afterwards.

"I'm okay other than my hand being pretty sore. It's unfortunate."

With Ducati having been quick all weekend, Hayden said the race was a missed opportunity - especially given the mixed weather conditions.

"One of our bike's strengths is generating heat in the tyres, and that's what you need on a cold, wet track like this," he said. "Already on the warm-up lap, the bike felt good. It's easy to say now, but I honestly feel like we could have put up a decent fight today and had some fun."

Team boss Vito Guareschi described the crash as a typical racing accident made more frustrating by Ducati's promising form in practice.

"In practice, both Vale and Nicky demonstrated that they were able to ride this track well in the conditions that we had for the race, but after they both started well, they really were victims of a classic first-turn crash," he said.

"It happens, but it hurt Ducati worse than the others. There's not much else to say."

Rossi added that his main sadness was that he had not been able to make his planned tribute to his late friend Marco Simoncelli after the race.

"There's really nothing to say about today, other than that I'm sorry beyond measure not to have been able to put on Sic's T-shirt for the lap of honour," he said. "It's truly a shame."