Source: Supplied.

Nicky Hayden’s highly-anticipated return to Repsol Honda colours at Phillip Island today resulted in a positive ninth-position at the conclusion of Friday.

The 2006 world champion is standing in for Dani Pedrosa riding the factory RC213V, but had limited laps in appalling conditions that resulted in FP2 being cancelled.

“Conditions obviously weren’t ideal today, but that sometimes happens,” Hayden said. “In the morning the bike felt quite good on the wet. I felt pretty comfortable and I was just trying to get up to speed when it started to rain harder and there were too much water, so I came in.

“Unfortunately I haven’t get many laps today, in any conditions really, but the bike felt good and also I improved my laptimes in my second exit this morning when the track was even worse then at the beginning of the session – that was pretty positive.

“So now we just wait and see what kind of conditions we get and we’ll try and get as much as track time as possible to understand the bike and the team more and let’s keep going.”