Hayden hits new low.

The extent of MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden's current problems were illustrated just after the halfway point of this afternoon's second free practice session at Istanbul, when the American was placed 19th and last.

The Repsol Honda is still to find confidence in the front of his RC212V, restricting him to eighth and seventh at the first two rounds. The #1 eventually hauled himself up to 14th this afternoon, but over two-seconds behind Ducati's Casey Stoner, and will need to find an overnight breakthrough to continue his Istanbul podium streak on Sunday.

"The track was really wet and dirty in this morning's session so we didn't actually get much out of that. This afternoon it warmed up and dried off and we got to put in a decent number of laps but it wasn't real stellar - the pace isn't where we want it to be," said Nicky. "The problem is just trying to get the front end to work for me - getting it to steer and finding some confidence in it, especially around turns eight, nine and 10 - the long, long left-hand corner. So the weekend hasn't started the way we wanted by any means and it's frustrating. We'll change a few things, maybe look at my transmission ratio because my top speed is a bit down, and try to get towards the front."

Team-mate Dani Pedrosa again faired better, being the second best Michelin rider behind Valentino Rossi, but ninth was still something of a disappointment.

"This was the first time on the 800cc on this circuit and the feeling is actually not so different to last year's 990," declared Dani. "However the track conditions today didn't really help us. There were wet patches for most of the morning session, and even in the afternoon it was still very dusty and the grip levels were not so good. The lap times were a little slower than we expected and we had a few issues getting the right balance with the tyres today. We were able to get a lot of information though and we'll look at the ways we can increase the pace tomorrow. We hope to be able to improve things quickly and get to a tyre choice and set-up that allows us to fight in the race."

Crash