Rossi slams 'useless' day one at Misano, Hayden returns
Rossi attempted to ride in the morning and afternoon sessions but on each occasion returned swiftly to his garage when the rain began to fall.
The Italian hero, set to leave Ducati to reform his old association with Jorge Lorenzo at Yamaha at the end of the season, said: “Today was completely useless, which is really a shame as it's obviously always better to be able to ride.
“This afternoon I tried to go out because we wanted to try a couple of things, including checking that everything was okay with the engine from the last race.
“But as soon as I got on the track, the rain started again and it was time to stop for good,” he added.
“There's not much to say. We'll wait for tomorrow.”
Rossi's team-mate, American ace Nicky Hayden, participated in the first free practice session this morning to gain an insight into the strength of his injured right hand as he returns to action at Misano.
Hayden completed four laps, with his time of 1m 48.409s leaving him ninth fastest overall at the end of the day.
“There's not really much to report today. We did a lot of sitting around and waiting. I went out a little bit in the damp this morning with a wet set-up, just to check the bike,” he said.
“I cruised a couple of laps and my hand wasn't too bad in those conditions, but we were all obviously way off the pace.
“I really won't know more until I get out in the dry and see if it's even going to be possible to race. I don't have much strength, and although it was fine for light braking, it could be a different story in the dry,” Hayden added.
“I wouldn't mind more rain, but I wouldn't want to go into the race with no dry track time. Hopefully we'll get some dry time tomorrow.”
Ducati have a new frame and swingarm to try this weekend.
