Repsol Honda struggle with surface

His teammate Nicky Hayden - who is chasing a third consecutive victory at his home race - was eighth fastest in both sessions.

"Well we went quite a lot faster this afternoon but today has proved that coming home is really nice but it doesn't necessarily cure all your problems," Hayden said.

"The support I'm getting from the fans is unreal, however we've struggled to get a good direction here, which has been a bit frustrating.

"The new track surface isn't working the tyres like we thought it would and we've been down around mid-pack all day. It's still early though, and we've proved this year that we can improve a lot through the weekend, so we'll definitely chip away at it.

"We've got work to do, no doubt, but you can bet we'll be working our hardest to come up with something."

Pedrosa said that poor traction was Honda's primary weakness.

"The main issue is the grip levels," he said. "We're trying to get some more traction and reduce the amount of wheelspin around the circuit.

"This afternoon, it was a similar situation to the morning. The track felt quite slippery and we weren't able to get the best out of our tyres for most of the session.

"Still, we've got some things to go on and we'll aim to improve the set-up and hone the gearing again tomorrow ahead of qualifying."