Nicky Hayden tumbles out of fourth place in Estoril
Nicky Hayden tumbled out of fourth place today while sneaking up on the leading trio. The opening laps of the race were especially tricky for the Kentucky Kid because light rain showers had dampened several sections of the circuit.
2006 MotoGP world champion Hayden was charging hard, moving through the pack from seventh place on the first place, picking off rivals here and there until he found himself in fourth place just after half way. The American had been chipping away at the leading group, closing a few tenths every lap, until he lost the front and fell going into turn seven on lap 17. His pace had been impressive, good enough for the third fastest lap of the race.
Nicky Hayden; DNF, 10th in World Championship
“The first few laps were certainly not easy, some parts of the track were a little wetter than others and I had on a pretty hard tyre. I had been choosing between that tyre and another a little bit softer, but with the way the weather’s been this weekend we really hadn’t got to do a lot of endurance on the harder one.
I got settled in, and the warmer I was getting the tyres the better they were working and I was able to start moving up, so things were feeling pretty good. I made a few passes, I’d just got into fourth, felt like I wanted to close the gap on the guys in front of me. You know, I got fourth place at Jerez and I certainly didn’t want to settle in there and ride around, so I had to push hard and you know when you push hard you make mistakes. It’s not a parade you can’t just cruise around.
The bike was working good, the tyres were working good, I felt pretty comfortable, so I was pushing. Turn seven’s downhill, certainly a trick corner, the front let go pretty early and down I went. It’s unfortunate because the bike was working good and we were hungry for a good result, so my own mistake. We just have to step it up a bit.”
Felt sorry for Nicky thought he was going well and catching up with the guys in front of him.
Hopefully he has better luck in China