Repsol Honda RC212V rider Nicky Hayden had high hopes of a strong final ride with his team at Valencia today after an impressive performance in practice and qualifying. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion topped the first three practice sessions, qualified on the front row and was determined to go out in style, but following a high-speed tumble during morning warm-up he could do no better than fifth.

After two days of on-and-off rainfall, the sun finally shone at Valencia today, with close to 120,000 fans thronging the track’s grandstands. Hayden didn’t get away from the grid as cleanly as he had hoped and ended the first lap in fourth spot. He got up to third for four laps but then slipped to fifth, a position which he then held to the flag.

Hayden, team-mate Dani Pedrosa and their RCVS wore a special one-off livery today that celebrates Repsol’s 40 years of motorsport sponsorship, using the same livery that featured on the company’s first rally cars in 1969. Repsol moved into motorcycle sponsorship two years later with Derbi riders Angel Nieto, who won the 1971 125 World Championship, and Barry Sheene, who took 33rd in that year’s 250 World Championship. Since then Repsol has won an amazing 33 World Championships with Nieto, Sheene, Mick Doohan, Alex Crivillé, Valentino Rossi and Pedrosa.

Nicky Hayden, finished 5th, 6th in World Championship

“We started out the weekend like a bit of a fairytale – fastest in the first three sessions, so we were off to a good start, I think the conditions were better for us then. Yesterday afternoon we were third and on the front row, then this morning we had a big off which probably didn’t help things. I just lost the front at turn nine, maybe conditions were a bit too cool for that front tyre. I had to swap bikes for the race and my crew had to change a lot of stuff: callipers, swingarm and so on. My other bike didn’t feel so smooth. It wasn’t too bad but I definitely liked my first bike better, but that was my fault. In the race I didn’t quite get the start I wanted and those guys were just quicker in the beginning, my rhythm wasn’t quick enough. It obviously would’ve been better to finish my last race with Honda a bit stronger. I rode hard this weekend, now I’m looking forward to doing something different. I have to finish off by saying thanks to my team, to Honda, to Michelin and to everybody here. They made me a world champ, I’m grateful to them all.”

Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager

“Nicky had quite a heavy crash this morning, but in the race he pushed as hard as he could. He did a good job this weekend. He was fastest in three practice sessions, qualified on the front row of the grid and I know he very much wanted to finish on the podium. My thanks to Nicky for a wonderful six seasons with Repsol Honda, my thanks also to the team and to Michelin.”