Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden qualified sixthfastest in tonight’s floodlit qualifying session at Losail to put him on the second row of the grid for tomorrow night’s season-opening Qatar GP. Nicky Hayden, who is running 2007 spec RC212Vs here, rode an excellent fastest lap on qualifiers to secure the last spot on row two.

Nicky Hayden, 6th fastest, 1m 54.880s

“We improved a lot this afternoon… heck, it’s the middle of the night! My first two runs on race tyres I improved quite a bit and in the end I was able to get a respectable lap on qualifies, nothing great, but I was able to give ourselves a decent chance.

The big thing around here for us is the straightaway, we’re losing quite a bit of time, the bike I’m using is what I had at Valencia. I’m really excited to be going racing. I’d like to have a better race pace and all that but it is what it is and it’s time to line up and go for it.

I’m enjoying riding at night, I think it’s cool, I hope some more tracks decide to get some lighting systems going.

A big thanks to my team and to HRC, these guys have worked so hard, it’s silly how hard they have worked over the last week to get more bikes here, get more options for us, build a different chassis for Dani’s bike which seems to be a good step so I’m sure the next time I get on the 08 I’ll try one of those.”