Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden ended the first day of a rain-hit MotoGP testing session at the top of the timesheets with most of top riders electing not to take to the track.
The desert track was hit by a rainstorm just after the floodlit test began and the circuit's poor conditions were compounded by sand that had blown onto it during the day. Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi did one siting lap and called it a day, while Hayden's `team-mate Casey Stoner didn't go out at all.
“I haven’t seen rain in Qatar in all my life and I never thought I would! But today we’d barely got the bike on track and it started to come down," said Hayden.
"We had to spend a long time in the garage because even though a part of the track had dried out there was a section that stayed damp for a while. The track conditions were tricky and there wasn’t much feedback, which meant we couldn’t do the work we had planned. We’ve got a few different things to try so hopefully the weather is better tomorrow so we can get some work done.”
