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Nicky Hayden has stayed over in Japan in an effort to improve the configurations on his bike ahead of the penultimate race of the MotoGP season in Portugal.

The American completed a total of 54 laps on the Montegi circuit as he tried out improvements on both the clutch and chassis of his evolution RC211V, achieving a personal fastest lap time on this course of one minute and 47.18 seconds in the process.

With just 12 points separating him from nearest challenger Valentino Rossi, the current championship leader knows that a good result is a must in Portugal and that he and his team will have to work hard beforehand and ensure they get their preparations right.

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He said afterwards: "I want to thank all the team and engineers for staying here and testing for a couple of days after nearly a month away from home; it's good to have them in my corner helping me.

"Now we'll just wait these two weeks out and get ready for Portugal - it's going to be a huge race."

Hayden's form of late has been disappointing: having only twice missed out on the podium until a few races ago and taken a seemingly unassailable lead with victory in the US GP, he has since failed to make the top three on the last four occasions.

By contrast, Rossi has made the podium in all four of those races and recently cast aspersions on the Honda rider's ability to hold onto top spot, claiming he is not in the same class as himself and fellow title challengers Loris Capirossi and Marco Melandri.

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