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.”

It hasn’t been an easy two days of practice and qualifying at Valencia, but Hayden showed his mettle by topping all three practice sessions, on a soaking track yesterday and in the damp this morning. With more rain clouds looming this afternoon, Hayden’s crew sent him out on his first sets of qualifiers after 20 minutes in case the occasional drizzle turned into rain. His first qualifying run put him fastest, then he improved his time some more, before reverting to race tyres, before a final run on qualifiers which left him just shy of pole. This is Hayden’s third front-row start in the last four races.

Nicky Hayden, 3rd fastest, 1′31.703

“We were close but close don’t count, I guess! We shouldn’t be too bummed out though, because we’re on the front row. It was pretty obvious that we really wanted to be on pole, we’ve been fastest all weekend, the bike is working good and the team did a great job when it started sprinkling, getting one bike ready with qualifiers early on. It was quite a tough session, going to qualifiers and then back to race tyres. On my last qualifying run I did a 32.0 on my first lap and I knew it was going to be tough to get into 31s. I really pushed hard, really hung it out, but the bike was just moving around too much to be fast. The best I could do was a 31.7. I definitely pushed as hard as I could, though maybe I should’ve got the tyre a bit hotter on the out lap. It’s always a compromise – sometimes you get it too hot and sometimes you don’t get it hot enough. I didn’t get the lap time I needed, so I’m a little frustrated because it would’ve been cool to give Michelin a pole position for their last MotoGP race. But we’ve got a good bike and a good set-up, so we’ll just try to go for it in the race. I didn’t get to do many laps on race tyres, what with the drizzle and the qualifiers. I’ve only tried a couple of race tyres, so we’ll definitely talk to Michelin and use every bit of morning warm-up to get the information we need to make our tyre choice.”

Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager

“Nicky did a good job, he got very close to pole and it’s great that he will start his final race with Honda from the front row of the grid. He didn’t get many laps on race tyres, so we still have some work to do on tyre choice, also his crew will try to make some more settings improvements during morning warm-up. We will all work hard tomorrow, targeting victory at the last race of 2008.”

Fittingly, for the last race of the wettest GP season in living memory, both of today’s sessions were run in the wet, Hayden showing his mastery of the slippery Valencia circuit on his Michelin-equipped RCV. This morning’s outing was run in heavy rain, conditions improving slightly this afternoon, with less surface water on the track, which allowed Hayden to better his first session time by almost two seconds.

Nicky Hayden 1st position 1′45.777

“It was pretty soggy out there, just rain all day. The bike, the team, everything was on point today, now we’ve just got to keep it rolling, because nobody’s going to remember who was quickest Friday come Sunday night. The bike and tyres and everything worked pretty good straight away today. We’ve been using basically the same rain settings I’ve been using since Sachsenring, they’ve worked at different tracks and they’re working good here, though this track doesn’t have a lot of grip, so to go any faster we need to sweeten it up a bit. I like being fastest and if it means staying wet all weekend then that would be fine for me, but honestly I hope it dries up. It’s going to be a hard weekend, just trying to stay on top, everybody’s pushing hard, but we’re off to a good start and I’m having fun. If it dries up tomorrow we don’t think finding a set-up should be too difficult, because the last couple of races we’ve been using relatively the same settings. The main thing is going to be tyre choice, that’s going to be real tough, because there’s not going to be much dry time, but it’s the same for everybody.”

Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager

“Nicky did a very good job today, he and his crew found a good set-up very quickly, so they could be fastest in both sessions. Michelin tyres are working very well here in these difficult conditions. The latest weather forecast suggests that conditions will improve tomorrow, so Nicky and his team will have to come up with a dry setting, working towards the race on Sunday.”

Hayden fought long and hard for third place, sneaking ahead of rival Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V) on a couple of occasions and crossing the finishing line just three tenths behind the Italian. Today’s result continues a strong run of results from the American, with two podiums from the last four races. Honda machines featured well in today’s race, with four RC212Vs in the top five. Conditions were ultra tough, with ambient temperatures reaching 40 degrees.

Next weekend’s Valencia GP is the 18th and final race of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship.

Nicky Hayden, finished 4th, 6th in World Championship

“We knew it was never going to be easy – all weekend we’ve been sixth and seventh, and with the changeable weather we were never really able to find anything set-up-wise. Then we had a bad warm-up. We tried some stuff overnight and went a bit backwards, so for the race I was quite unsure how it was going to go. We put the bike back to how it was yesterday morning, and it was okay, but I was just missing that little bit. The race honestly went better than I thought I would, it could’ve been uglier. I pushed hard, a couple of times I was able to get in front of Dovi, but he held tough. Man, he don’t give in for nothing. I enjoyed the battle, it was fun battling for the podium after the dudes up front took off early. I tried everything I could, I was pushing the front quite a lot, through Turn Three mainly. Maybe I should have tried something a little more silly on the last lap, that’s always hindsight, but sure I’ll beat myself up tonight, thinking I should have taken some bigger chances, but I was already pushing hard. Congratulations to Dovi on his first podium, he earned it.”

Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager

“Nicky again pushed hard, his motivation is very high, and he was so close to scoring his third podium in four races. He had a great race with Andrea, they were both riding very hard, so it was difficult for them to overtake each other. Nicky ran wide a couple of times, so he lost his chance to attack at the end of the last lap. My thanks to him, to the team and to Michelin for their efforts here. Now we target Valencia, and the target is the same as always: to win.”

DNF James Toseland GBR Tech 3 Yamaha (M)
DNF Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team (M)

Qualifying got underway on a soaking track following a monumental downpour that hit Sepang before lunchtime.

Riders started out on rain tyres, then swapped to slicks with about 20 minutes remaining. The session was frantic, with pole position changing constantly and riders trying to pack as many qualifying tyres as they could into the last few minutes when the track was at its driest, with damp patches here and there. Hayden’s final run might have got him on pole. He got the fastest time of the session in the first two splits but then ran out of front grip. There hadn’t been enough time for him to fit a new front qualifier for that final outing.

Tomorrow Hayden goes for his third podium from the last four races. The American finished second in last month’s Indianapolis GP and third in the Australian GP earlier this month.

Nicky Hayden, 4th fastest, 2′02.192

“It was quite a wild day. This morning we improved quite a lot, but so did everybody else. It wasn’t spectacular but we definitely made an improvement, at times we were really competitive. This afternoon was pretty gnarly. We started on full wets and the track kept drying and drying. We ended up fourth which isn’t a disaster. At one stage near the end I was 15th, thankfully we didn’t get any big showers then, so I was able to get in a good lap, but I really wanted to be on the front row. I was fastest in T1 and T2 on my last qualifier. But lately I can only get one run out of my qualifying fronts and we didn’t have enough time to change the tyre, because with the big discs we use here it take a while to change. So I did two runs on it and midway round my last lap she was done and I lost some time. I’m a little bit bummed, I haven’t had a pole all year and every year for the last few years I’ve had at least one. The rear Michelin qualifier was amazing, it was ridiculous how much grip it had, even across the wet patches. If we can make a little step in the morning, get the bike turning a little better, I feel like I can be competitive. It’s going to be a long, hard race if I’m going to hang in there.”

Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager

“Nicky got the second row which is great, because I think he can fight at the front tomorrow. He still wants to make a few little improvements to improve machine turning, so the morning warm-up will be very important for him. Nicky’s motivation is very high, he wants to score another podium.”