Hayden got stuck in fast and at the end of the day found himself in a five-man group separated by a fraction of a second – the Hondas of Colin Edwards, Sete Gibernau, Max Biaggi and the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi. The base setting work he did yesterday had clearly paid off.

Barros looked more confident on the Honda RC211V as the day progressed – with his new team he worked hard on setting the bike up and in doing so cut around one and a half seconds off his lap time from yesterday

Nicky Hayden - 2m02.855 - “I felt like I was ridin’ a lot better today – especially in the mornin’. Yesterday we tried a lot of things to get a good base settin’. We tried a lot of front Michelins and that really helped with my confidence in the front end which is important for me. Immediately we got down to some pretty good lap times and what was good was that they were pretty consistently fast.

"After a big step this morning I kinda’ got in a rut after lunch and wasn’t makin’ as much progress, as I’d have liked. The new swing arm is takin’ a lil’ getting’ used to – gives a lil’ more grip and we tried some new shocks today that helped a lil’ under braking. We’ve got some things to work on tomorrow but we’re definitely goin’ in the right direction. Much better today than yesterday”.

Alex Barros - 2m04.427 - “Feel pretty sore today which is not surprising as yesterday was the first time I had ridden in three months. The shoulder is feeling OK and I have to keep putting ice on the keep it calm. It’s definitely feeling a lot better every day.

"I’m tired now but have a lot more confidence in the bike than yesterday. I need to keep running – my feeling for the machine has improved in a day. Sometimes I think I’m pushing hard – it’ll come naturally. I need more time to understand the machine – more experience of the bike.

"We spent most of the day riding one bike and making adjustments to it – different links, changing suspension units, the mapping and 16.5-inch tyre.  I’ve improved my lap time from this morning and am quite happy really”.