Hayden eager to stay in front

Nicky Hayden is determined to maintain his momentum for the rest of the Valencia weekend after dominating Friday practice in wet conditions.

The American is keen to get a good result in his final race for Honda before joining Ducati, and made a perfect start to his farewell weekend as he topped the morning session by 0.7 seconds.

But he said that result will count for little unless he can carry that form through to the race.

"The bike, the team, everything was on point today, now we've just got to keep it rolling, because nobody's going to remember who was quickest Friday come Sunday night," said Hayden.

"The bike and tyres and everything worked pretty good straight away today. We've been using basically the same rain settings I've been using since Sachsenring, they've worked at different tracks and they're working good here, though this track doesn't have a lot of grip, so to go any faster we need to sweeten it up a bit."

Despite his speed in the wet, Hayden said he was keen for the weather to improve tomorrow, as Honda's forecast suggests it will.

"I like being fastest and if it means staying wet all weekend then that would be fine for me, but honestly I hope it dries up," he said.

"It's going to be a hard weekend, just trying to stay on top, everybody's pushing hard, but we're off to a good start and I'm having fun.

"If it dries up tomorrow we don't think finding a set-up should be too difficult, because the last couple of races we've been using relatively the same settings. The main thing is going to be tyre choice, that's going to be real tough, because there's not going to be much dry time, but it's the same for everybody."

His teammate Dani Pedrosa completed a Repsol Honda one-two in the afternoon, having been fourth in the wetter conditions of first practice.

"It rained pretty much the whole day and the asphalt was quite slippery," said the Spaniard. "In these conditions we couldn't work so much on the set-up,
but anyway we were able to find a good compromise that allowed us to be quite fast.

"During the afternoon session the track dried out a little bit up, so we were able to improve our lap times and ride with a good rhythm.

"My Bridgestone wet tyres worked well today, but I hope that we can have two dry sessions tomorrow so that we can work on the set-up in preparation for the race."

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