China GP: Hayden fastest

Nicky Hayden set the fastest time on the opening day of the first ever Chinese GP.

The Factory Honda rider set his best lap in the opening practice session with a 2:02.327, leaving Movistar Honda team-mates Marco Melandri and Sete Gibernau in second and third and Valentino Rossi down in fifth.

But rain came down for the second session and lap times dropped off. It did dry out enough later in the session for the riders to use cut slicks but top man Kenny Roberts was still lapping 12 seconds slower than Hayden’s earlier time.

Camel Honda rider Alex Barros took the second fastest time with Sete Gibernau still in third place followed by Troy Bayliss, Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi.

Rain is forecast for the whole weekend so this could potentially be the first time that we see the riders make use of the pit stop option to change from slicks to wet tyres under the new flag-to-flag racing rules.

We’ll be bringing you full updates from all the weekends racing and you can get all the behind the scenes action only in MCN, out Wednesday May 4.

Official times:

Free practice 2

Kenny Roberts , 2:14.592

Alex Barros , 2:15.076

Sete Gibernau , 2:15.363

Troy Bayliss , 2:15.766

Max Biaggi , 2:15.834

Valentino Rossi , 2:15.920

Marco Melandri , 2:16.209

Colin Edwards , 2:16.696

Carlos Checa , 2:16.841

Toni Elias , 2:17.577

Franco Battaini , 2:18.508

Olivier Jacque , 2:18.995

John Hopkins , 2:19.116

Tohru Ukawa , 2:19.321

Loris Capirossi , 2:19.380

Nicky Hayden , 2:19.423

Ruben Xaus , 2:19.481

Jurgen Vd Goorbergh , 2:19.855

Shinya Nakano , 2:19.950

Roberto Rolfo , 2:20.302

James Ellison , 2:21.701

Free practice 1

Nicky Hayden , 2:02.327

Marco Melandri , 2:02.485

Sete Gibernau , 2:02.557

Carlos Checa , 2:02.664

Valentino Rossi , 2:02.677

Loris Capirossi , 2:02.705

Alex Barros , 2:02.816

Kenny Roberts , 2:03.270

John Hopkins , 2:03.420

Troy Bayliss , 2:03.526

Max Biaggi , 2:03.617

Shinya Nakano , 2:03.687

Colin Edwards , 2:03.799

Toni Elias , 2:04.381

Olivier Jacque , 2:05.165

Ruben Xaus , 2:05.490

Tohru Ukawa , 2:06.822

Roberto Rolfo , 2:06.937

Franco Battaini , 2:07.311

Jurgen Vd Goorbergh , 2:07.661

James Ellison , 2:07.791