The MotoGP World Championship has arrived in Japan much earlier than usual, with the Motegi circuit hosting the second round of the season as opposed to one of the decisive later races, and the springtime temperatures provided the teams and riders with a fresh challenge – figuratively and literally speaking – out on the track, and with 45 minutes available in today’s first free practice session, Ducati Marlboro pair Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden had to work quickly on the set-up of their Desmosedici machines.

Nicky Hayden, who headed into the action with the stitches he had inserted into his chest, shrugged off the discomfort to turn in a productive afternoon’s work, building on the progress made with his own GP9 set-up during the race in Doha.

NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 13th (1’50.393)

“The track was quite slippery when we first went out and the air felt so cold, with the humidity, it felt like it could rain any second. We certainly had to be careful getting some heat into the left side of the rear and into the front. We tried a few things out with the set-up – I ran both bikes and worked in the direction we’d found in Qatar, where the balance of the bike had felt much better in the later laps, with less fuel on board. Obviously the lap time isn’t great but we improved with every run and pretty much every lap, we got a good number laps in just in case it does rain tomorrow and we worked out a basic direction we need to take for the race, so I’m satisfied. “