The first session of a two-day test got underway in hot and sunny conditions in Valencia today, a day full of new things for the Ducati Marlboro Team. At close to 11.00 in the morning, when the garage doors were opened, the spotlights were all focused on Nicky Hayden and on his ‘Stars and Stripes’ liveried Ducati, which had its first run at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

Hayden, like new team-mate Casey Stoner, carried out his first run of the day with the GP8 before turning his attention firmly on the GP9. The American continually improved his rhythm throughout the course of the day, stopping the clock with a best lap of 1′33.960

Nicky Hayden – best lap 1′33.960 (79 laps)

“It has been a very intense day and full of many things to test and to understand, but it was exactly as I expected it to be. I did just one run with the GP8 and then I switched completely to the GP9. Obviously there is a lot of work to do but I am happy, it was a good day that has allowed me to understand that the bike has good potential and, more than anything, I can say that I really enjoyed myself. This first day has given me an appreciation of the bike and the team. One of the things that really impressed me the most was the acceleration. I found myself pretty comfortable on the bike, and I really didn’t make a lot of changes to levers and handlebars. We have not even changed a lot the settings, we have just made some small changes, some mapping settings, a couple of tyres, in order to try and understand the direction of the bike and to feel comfortable on it”.