Ducati's Nicky Hayden was pleasantly surprised by the amount his injured shoulder didn't hurt after a morning in the saddle on day one of the MotoGP test at Sepang, saying it is the first time he could ride the Desmosedici GP12 properly.

The 2006 world champion was forced to sit out the first set of tests in Malaysia last month and subsequently went under the knife to have the shoulder repaired in time to be somewhere near fit for the season. He admits he is not 100 per cent, but is a lot closer than he thought.

“I’m obviously still not at 100 percent, but considering I had shoulder surgery three weeks ago, it went better than I expected. I felt much better than at the last test and was able to give some good feedback, so I owe a big thanks to Dr Ting and his staff. This is the first time I could really ride this bike well, and I enjoyed it," said Hayden.

"The chassis gives you a lot of feedback, and it’s easier to understand the limit. We made some changes throughout the day and I pretty much got quicker every exit. It would have been nice to ride in the rain, but I didn’t want to do something silly and crash on the shoulder. Hopefully it’s not too sore when I wake up so I can do another half-day or so tomorrow.”