Dovizioso, like Pedrosa, crashed out of fourth at Assen, but also bounced back by lapping just 0.243sec behind Pedrosa in US GP practice.

“The lap times came easily today and I'm quite happy with the pace we were able to achieve,” said the Italian. “We did three runs with the soft Bridgestone tyres and then the last run with the hard tyre option and the results were promising. It took a while for the hard tyres to warm up though, so in the end I couldn't push as hard as I wanted to improve my lap time. Because of that I'm confident we have room to go quicker tomorrow.

“Despite the fact that it was quite easy to get the rhythm, I'm not totally happy with my feeling from the front of the bike in the middle of the turn so we will need to work on that and try a few options tomorrow. I like the challenge of this track and the atmosphere here, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there in the morning.”