"All in all, a pretty positive day. I would definitely say this was the best first day of tests we've had so far this year. And we knew it was important, because the weather experts are saying there's a really good chanced of rain the next two days," said Hayden, whose best lap time of 1min 39.200secs came on lap 84 of 107 and put the American 0.244secs clear of satellite Honda rider
Randy de Puniet, as Michelin riders swept the top five positions.
"I tried a different chassis, it felt slightly better with a little more feel on the front, so we used that most of the day and it felt pretty good," explained Nicky, who had previously suffered a lack of front-end feel when using the spring-valve engine in the '08 chassis.
"We went through a few other things, not making big changes because we're getting closer to the season now, just a few little settings changes, and when I thought things felt better the stopwatch normally went along with it, which is always good.
"At the end I did race distance and it didn't feel too bad. We were able to get into the 40s on race tyres, though we still need to get in there a little deeper, we still need to improve a bit," he confirmed.
Meanwhile, continuing what has been a fine pre-season, de Puniet instantly felt comfortable with his '08 engine - which all the satellite RCV teams have received for the first time at
Jerez. The satellite engine is the same spec as Hayden and Pedrosa finished last season with.
de Puniet hit the top late in the day with a scorching 1min 40.223secs on race tyres, but saved his fastest run on Michelin qualifiers for his very last lap as he edged out top rookie
Jorge Lorenzo by just 0.84secs. After his front-end problems at Sepang, Lorenzo was delighted to be back on form at a track where he also enjoyed a promising test at the end of 2007.
Lorenzo headed a trio of Michelin-shod Yamaha riders in the opening day's top five, ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha duo
Colin Edwards and
James Toseland.
