Former MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden left the three-day MotoGP Sepang ‘demoralised’ by the lack of power available from the Open class Honda RCV1000R and now faces an uphill battle to catch a flying Aleix Espargaro.

On supposedly equal machinery, Hayden was 1.6s slower than the Forward Yamaha man and repeatedly said the Honda needs more power in order to bridge the gap to the factory M1-powered Spaniard.

“It's been a challenging three days. We have made some progress each day but I didn't expect it to be so tough here. I expected to be more competitive and closer with the guys. It was pretty demoralising when I tried to follow the others so I have to find a way to stay positive,” said Hayden, speaking at Sepang.

“We have definitely improved in these days, especially in braking and corner entry with the engine management and blipping, so that's improved but we have got a lot of work to do it we want to be competitive.”

HRC boss Shuhei Nakamoto was telling anyone who would listen that riders needed a year to get used to riding a different bike and that speed would come from Hayden when he shook off his Ducati habits.

“Of course, I have habits from the Ducati that I need to adjust but I don't need a year to remember how to open the throttle on the straight. For sure, there are things we can do with setup and I need to understand more and get rid of some things,” replied the American.

“We have a flatspot when the rpm drops in the slow corners, that our problem, and then the top gears. The engine alone is not two seconds so I have got to do my part. It's an easier bike to ride because the straights seem a long longer than they did on the Ducati but once we get more power, they will get shorter and we will have to hold on more. We are a couple of kph faster than the Aprilia.”