Pedrosa expects more recovery time

The Spaniard had a frustrating time at Jerez in Spain this weekend where, although able to get back on the machine for the first time since his Sepang accident, he could only complete limited running.

He missed Sunday's wet sessions and did not want to push too hard on the other two days in case another accident put his recovery back.

Speaking after the final day of running, Pedrosa said: "My right hand feels the same as it did on Saturday. We've been trying to make some changes to the bike to make it easier for the hand and that's been positive.

"But we weren't able to try too many things because it's been so windy, which makes it dangerous to ride fast, so it's been difficult to improve.

"I don't think the hand will be 100 percent when we get to Qatar but I hope it will be better than it is now. We have ten days before the test, so we'll do as much therapy as we can in order to be ready for the tests and for the race."

Despite Pedrosa's problems, his Repsol Honda team enjoyed an encouraging final day with Nicky Hayden topping the timesheets.

The American expressed his delight at what had been a confidence-boosting three days of running, although was still cautious about where the team stood compared to the opposition.

"It's definitely been a really positive and productive three days," said Hayden. "We had high hopes coming here because when we tested here in November the bike worked pretty good and Michelin tyres normally work good at Jerez, so this is a good track for us, also there's no big long straightaways.

"The chassis seems to be working good and also the tyres are working good. We tried a few different tyre options, and we're still checking data between the 16 and 16.5 rears.

"But the show hasn't started yet, we'll find out what everybody's really got and what we're in for when we get to Qatar but we leave here pretty happy."