Nicky Hayden clocked up 76 laps in Tuesday Valencia testing and saved his best lap until last.

After Hiroshi Aoyama tested the Aspar Team's new Honda machine yesterday, clocking a best time of 1’33.020, Tuesday was the turn of his new teammate Hayden to do so.

With poor weather forecast for Wednesday the American did not want to waste a minute of available track time and he threw his leg over the new machine no sooner had pit-lane opened at 10am.

By around 2pm he had dropped his lap times to 1’32.582 but with his 76th and final lap of the day he went even faster with a 1’32.576. Although that is over two seconds off Marc Marquez test pace, these are early days for the rider with his new team and new package.

The Kentuckian rider enthused: “This is a new project and there is a long road ahead but that's what makes it so interesting. I really enjoyed my first contact with the bike. There is a lot to learn and I need to build a relationship with the mechanics but I am really happy with today for a first shakedown.”

“The team has helped me a lot and I had a lot of engineers around me all day. We can see how much work there is to do but the base is solid. We couldn't have had better conditions to ride in today. It would have been nice to finish with some stronger lap times but overall we're happy.”