The Repsol Honda Team endured its toughest day of the year so far at rain-lashed Sachsenring today. Dani Pedrosa led the early laps in superb style but crashed out, leaving Nicky Hayden the team’s only finisher in an unlucky 13th place after an early race pit stop.

Hayden was confident of a good race, wet or dry, but soon after the start the American realised he had traction issues. After a difficult first few laps he came in to change his rear tyre. After that pit stop Hayden’s pace improved but he still felt something was amiss with his machine. Nonetheless the former World Champion persevered, bringing his RC212V home in the atrocious conditions for three World Championship points

Nicky Hayden, finished 13th, 8th in World Championship

“Today was a bit of a disaster, really. All weekend in the dry we had been going okay but conditions changed a lot for the race. I was actually glad it was raining because the bike has been working good in the rain recently, but the race turned into a disaster. The tyre choice wasn’t good and something also didn’t look right on the electronics, seems like it was a combination of problems. We came in and changed the rear tyre to a slightly different compound. Things were a lot better when I went out but I was right in the middle of everybody and I didn’t want to get in the way of people racing. We got a few points. Now it’s Laguna next weekend, so we’ll just keep pushing and hope to catch a break somewhere along the way.”