Changing weather conditions, with intermittent rain all day long, rendered useless the first day of free practice at Misano, as the track was neither completely wet nor completely dry. Nicky Hayden, who wanted to check the strength of his still-healing right hand, turned four laps in the morning, but as the pace allowed by the track conditions was quite slow, the American will have to wait until tomorrow for a more meaningful test. Valentino Rossi tried to ride in both the morning and the afternoon sessions, but in both cases, it began raining soon after and the Italian returned to the garage.
Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team 9th – 1:48.409
“There’s not really much to report today! We did a lot of sitting around and waiting. I went out a little bit in the damp this morning with a wet setup, just to check the bike. I cruised a couple of laps and my hand wasn’t too bad in those conditions, but we were all obviously way off the pace. I really won’t know more until I get out in the dry and see if it’s even going to be possible to race. I don’t have much strength, and although it was fine for light braking, it could be a different story in the dry. I wouldn’t mind more rain, but I wouldn’t want to go into the race with no dry track time. Hopefully we’ll get some dry time tomorrow.”
Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team
“Today was completely useless, which is really a shame as it’s obviously always better to be able to ride. This afternoon I tried to go out because we wanted to try a couple of things, including checking that everything was okay with the engine from the last race. But as soon as I got on the track, the rain started again and it was time to stop for good. There’s not much to say. We’ll wait for tomorrow.”
