Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden took third place in today’s official preseason MotoGP practice session – the first actual competition of the year, in which MotoGP riders compete to win a BMW car.

The American was fired up for the 40-minute qualifying-style shootout which was run on a wet track following heavy morning rainfall.

Nicky Hayden is hoping for better weather tomorrow to allow him to continue work on development of the 2008 RC212V machine before they head to Qatar for the final preseason tests on February 28 and 29, one week before the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix.

Nicky Hayden – fastest lap: 1m 50.785s (lap 15 of 16)

“It was fun, because it’s a bit of competition, and not just because there was a car on the line, we could’ve been racing for a piece of bubblegum and everybody would’ve tried just as hard! We’re all competitors and it was pretty fun but conditions were not ideal.

I wish they had been a little more stable, but right at the end when the clock was about to hit zero the conditions were almost at their worst, they were about to go dry. We did our best time a little earlier in the session. We ran full rains throughout, I seen that 49 and knew that was going to be tough, Casey (Stoner) really put one down.

Nonetheless the bike was working pretty good in the rain. I’m not happy about third but for me those intermediate conditions – a little patchy with a dry line starting to form – are about the worst. That’s something I’ve definitely been working on and thinking a lot about, so in some ways I’m happy we did okay in those conditions. Full rain’s normally not too bad for me and the dry’s not bad but that in between bit is quite tricky, so we’ve worked a lot on that.

It’s been a positive day, even this morning in the rain we didn’t have to make any big changes to get the bike reasonable. We were really good in the full wet, the Michelins were working good and there was one front in particular that I liked. We just need to improve some more in those in between conditions.”

MotoGP Test Times Jerez - Day 2

1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1?49.263
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1?50.580
3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1?50.785
4. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1?50.799
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1?51.312
6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1?51.594
7. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1?51.894
8. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1?51.979
9. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1?52.058
10. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1?52.238
11. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1?52.463
12. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1?52.755
13. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1?52.779
14. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1?52.826
15. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1?53.283
16. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1?53.292
17. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1?54.694
18. Niccolò Canepa (ITA) Ducati Test 1?57.453
19. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1?57.698