Nicky Hayden makes Honda RC213V-RS debut

Nicky Hayden made his debut on Honda's new RC213V-RS Open class machine, during day two of testing at Valencia.

Unfortunately for the Drive M7 Aspar rider it rained throughout the day. But he was at least able to get some first impressions of a bike powered by the title-winning RC213V engine, albeit using the control ECU and without the seamless gearbox.

Hayden, who struggled to hide his disappointment at this year's underpowered RCV1000R, said: "With the wet conditions today we weren't able to test everything we wanted. We have some new members within the technical staff so we took the chance to get to know each other today.

"We didn't ride in wet conditions all season so we did the first part of the session on the old bike. We made some adjustments that worked well and then at the end we had the chance to ride the new bike.

"Riding a new bike in the wet is not the best thing in the world but at least we were able to get a feel for it over a few laps. It has a lot of power so I hope we get chance tomorrow to try it out in normal conditions. It seems a bit stiffer, a little heavier, but the biggest difference compared to the old bike is definitely the power.

"If the weather is on our side tomorrow we can concentrate on setting the new bike up and getting a real feel for it. The chassis, the engine... there are a lot of new things to adapt my riding style to so hopefully we get chance tomorrow."

The 'RS' can be identified by its large single air intake, compared with the split intake on the RCV1000R.

Former world champion Hayden set the second fastest lap time of the day.