MotoGP Assen - Hayden praying for rain in Holland

Ducati's Nicky Hayden has admitted he is praying for rain for tomorrow's Assen MotoGP race after being more than a second slower in qualifying than he was this time last year.

The 2006 world champion says he has a good feeling around Assen in the wet and believes that is the only way he will be able to get any sort of a result on the struggling, in the dry at least, Desmosedici.

"It's been a difficult day. This morning in the wet we made some changes to the bike and it felt really good straightaway. Even with the used tyres I was able to go pretty fast and when I stopped I was P1 in the session with a better feeling than yesterday," said Hayden, speaking after qualifying.

"Some of the problems I was having in the dry were the same as the wet with entry grip and we made an improvement but when I went out in FP4 I was really fighting the bike and not going very fast.

"I am over a second slower than last year. I need to calm down a bit, think and see what we can do for tomorrow. It's not going to be an easy race tomorrow and I hate to be that guy, but I hope it rains tomorrow. I had a good feeling in the rain and that is the reality."

By David Miller

Image by Bonnie Lane