Nicky Hayden - Chasin' a Dream » MotoGP Test

MotoGP Test Catalunya

Sandra — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:34:45 +0000

“It wasn’t the day I had hoped for, seeing the progress we had made over the weekend. In Saturday morning’s practice, when it was a little cooler and the conditions were similar to those of today, I lapped in 1m43.6 while here today I haven’t gone under 1m44 and right from the start I didn’t have the same feeling as I had over the weekend. I don’t know why, also because we worked so hard, but I hope that the data collected is of use to the engineers so we can prepare well for Assen.”

MotoGP Test times, Monday 15th June 2009

1. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1:42.230 (69 laps)
2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:42.434 (58)
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:42.446 (80)
4. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1:42.637 (98)

5. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1:42.763 (38)
6. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 1:43.188 (83)
7. Randy De Puniet (Honda) 1:43.247 (76)
8. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) 1:43.299 (83)
9. Alex De Angelis (Honda) 1:43.360 (69)
10. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati) 1:43.391 (90)
11. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki) 1:43.506 (89)
12. Toni Elias (Honda) 1:43.708 (60)
13. Sete Gibernau (Ducati) 1:43.819 (45)
14. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1:44.1 (98)
15. Gabor Talmacsi (Honda) 1:45.056 (53)

Circuit Record: Dani Pedrosa (Honda – 2008), 1’42.358 – 166.251 Km/h
Best Pole: Casey Stoner (Ducati – 2008), 1’41.186 – 168.177 Km/h
2009 Pole: Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), 1’41.974 – 166.877 Km/h

Nicky Hayden makes progress at MotoGP test in Sepang

Sandra — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:13:28 +0000

The first test session of the 2009 preseason ended today at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, with another day of intense work for the MotoGP teams and riders, who were able to take advantage of stable yet typically demanding conditions.

Nicky Hayden has made continual progress over the three days of the test and he was able to improve by another half second today, although he would have ideally liked to have been even faster. The American is determined to use the information gathered over the past three days to full effect in the next test, having already shown the team his famous dedication to the task. The lap times set by his own team-mate have given Hayden belief that there is a lot more to come from himself and his bike, giving him a crucial mix of confidence and motivation ahead of the new season.

The next appointment for the Ducati Marlboro Team is a test session from 1st to 3rd March at the Losail circuit in Qatar.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team), fastest lap 2’02.496 (62 laps)

“We started out on the right foot again today and I managed to knock six tenths of a second off my best lap from yesterday. Then in the early part of the afternoon I had a little crash in turn two, where to be honest they’ve done a bad job of resurfacing the track and it has caught a few riders out this week. Luckily I wasn’t hurt. Obviously I’m not happy with my lap times, I was expecting more from myself, but I have to stay positive. I’ve improved my lap times every day and we have gathered a lot of data to work from in the next test. The fact Casey is already so fast means that the bike has the potential – it can only be a good thing that he is going so quick. The team is working hard and they are just as determined as I am to get the results, so that’s a good thing. I wasn’t too bad in the first two sectors but I was losing too much in T3 and T4, where the problem I’m having with the bike being unstable and unpredictable on the exit was the worst. The Bridgestones are really consistent and I was able to do my first long run on the Ducati without any tyre life problems.”

Unofficial lap times, Saturday 07/02/2009

1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2.01’043 (38 laps)
2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2.01’137 (43)
3. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 2.01’262 (57)
4. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2.01’413 (22)
5. Toni Elias (Honda) 2.01’560 (37)
6. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) 2.01’666 (48)
7. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2.01’907 (61)
8. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 2.01’955 (54)
9. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 2.02’386 (61)
10. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 2.02’497 (62)
11. Alex De Angelis (Honda) 2.02’523 (32)
12. Sete Gibernau (Ducati) 2.02’727 (42)
13. Randy De Puniet (Honda) 2.03’418 (50)
14. Yuki Takahashi (Honda) 2.03’474 (58)
15. Niccolò Canepa (Ducati) 2.03’915 (41)
16. James Toseland (Yamaha) 2.03’953 (36)
17. Yamaha tester (Yamaha) 2.04’328 (38)
18. Yamaha tester (Yamaha) 2.04’614 (33)

MotoGP Test Times (2) – Valencia

Sandra — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:45:44 +0000

1. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1’48.287
2. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team (B) 1’48.296
3. Marco Melandri ITA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1′48.786
4. Niccolo Canepa ITA Alice Team (B) 1′49.917
5. Mika Kallio FIN Alice Team (B) 1′50.275
6. Toni Elias SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini (B) 1′54.057
7. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1′57.322

Nicky Hayden: I’m pretty comfortable on the bike

Sandra — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:50:59 +0000

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”.

MotoGP Test Results Valencia

Sandra — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:59:30 +0000

1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1’32.464
2. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (B) 1’32.672
3. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (B) 1’32.921
4. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1’33.142
5. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1’33.325
6. Alex de Angelis RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini (B) 1’33.375
7. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team (B) 1’33.550
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team (B) 1’33.676
9. John Hopkins USA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1’33.760
10. Marco Melandri ITA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1’33.782
11. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP (B) 1’33.832
12. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1’33.960
13. Toni Elias SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini (B) 1’34.129
14. Sete Gibernau SPA Onde 2000 Ducati (B) 1’34.451
15. Mika Kallio FIN Alice Team (B) 1’34.793
16. Olivier Jacque FRA Kawasaki Test Rider (B) 1’34.925
17. Niccolo Canepa ITA Alice Team (B) 1’34.995
18. Yuki Takahashi JPN Team Scot (B) 1’35.203

Nicky Hayden busy testing in Le Mans

Sandra — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:04:11 +0000

Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden stayed on at Le Mans today for a busy day of testing following yesterday’s French Grand Prix. The Kentucky Kid focused on evaluating Michelin tyres and different chassis set-up solutions in preparation for the next MotoGP event at Mugello, Italy, on June 1. Hard-working Hayden used race tyres throughout his impressive run of 113 laps. Mugello is the first of a quick-fire run of six races over eight weekends. Hayden’s next duty, however, is this coming weekend, when he will ride a demo lap aboard a 2007 RC212V just before the start of the huge Indy 500 car race to promote September’s inaugural Indianapolis MotoGP event.

Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 34.752s (113 laps)

“It was a hard weekend, today we found a couple of band aids for the problems we’ve had here. We only tested with race tyres and we improved our pace. I was able to go quicker than we went yesterday but still not enough. We tried a lot of solutions and I can’t really say we really found any cures for the braking stability and for getting the bike to enter the corner better. We went through a lot of stuff which at least we can now rule out. We tried mainly setting changes and a few tyres, which could possibly work well for us at other tracks, which we needed to get a little bit of data on. It looked like the sky could open up any time, it stayed dry but it wasn’t a day for the beach! I feel a little better now, so hopefully Mugello will go smoother for us.”

Nicky Hayden tests new parts and setting in Jerez test day

Sandra — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:06:39 +0000

Nicky Hayden went back to work at Jerez on Monday following the Spanish GP which his team mate Pedrosa won in brilliant style, Hayden building momentum with a fine ride to fourth. Nicky Hayden evaluated new parts and new settings, working hard to continue the impressive progress he made over the Spanish GP weekend, during which he raced a new chassis for the first time.

Nicky Hayden, 9th, 1m 40. 389s, 80 laps

“We learned some stuff today, we were able to run pretty decent and consistent laps using reference tyres and we got some good data, so quite a positive day all in all. We had nothing major to test, just some different clutch options to get into the corners a little bit better and some general setup options, looking for a bit of edge traction to help save the tyre over race distance. We’ll come back again tomorrow, get another full day and just work our way through some more options.”

MotoGP Test Results Jerez

1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’38.679
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’39.117
3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1’39.218
4. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1’39.484
5. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1’39.569
6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’39.747
7. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’40.034
8. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1’40.116
9. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1’40.389
10. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1’40.394
11. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1’40.534
12. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’41.308
13. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1’41.396
14. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1’42.132
15. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1’42.240
16. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1’42.562
17. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1’42.624

Nicky Hayden fastest overall in official MotoGP test

Sandra — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:18:33 +0000

The Repsol Honda rider finished the official MotoGP test satisfied with the improvements on the chassis.

The weather forecast was fortunately wrong today, and in spite of the strong wind on the Spanish track throughout the day, the MotoGP riders were able to enjoy a completely dry track during the last test at Jerez. Now it is time for a few days’ rest before heading for Qatar at the end of this month. Next 28th and 29th of Febuary the last 2008 pre-season tests will be held in preparation for the Qatar GP, with the peculiarity of being run during the night, the first nocturnal race in the history of the World Motorcycling Championship, which starts this year on March 9th.

After achieving the best time on Saturday and taking third place in yesterday’s timed session, Nicky Hayden leaves the Jerez Circuit leading the time sheet. The Repsol rider was the only rider to achieve times below 1?39 over the three days of training, demonstrating the enormous potential of the Michelin qualification tyres. The American has also been working on the development of his RC212V 2008, with new improvements on the chassis. In total he completed 82 laps on the Andalusian track, again the rider to complete the most laps. His best lap was No. 81, with classification tyres. Hayden also ran a race simulation with satisfactory results according to the rider himself.

Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 38.848s (lap 81 of 82)

“It’s definitely been a really positive and productive three days. We had high hopes coming here because when we tested here in November the bike worked pretty good and Michelin tyres normally work good at Jerez, so this is a good track for us, also there’s no big long straightaways.

The wind here has made it tough, the conditions haven’t been easy, but I do feel more comfortable on this year’s bike in the wind. The team really worked hard and made some good moves and good decisions. We didn’t make a lot of big changes, we just got closer to race settings, tried a couple of qualifiers and did a 25 lap run. The chassis seems to be working good and also the tyres are working good. We tried a few different tyre options, and we’re still checking data between the 16 and 16.5 rears. But the show hasn’t started yet, we’ll find out what everybody’s really got and what we’re in for when we get to Qatar but we leave here pretty happy. At the Qatar tests we’ll see how it is under the lights and dial everything in for the first race.”

MotoGP Test Times Jerez

1. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1’38.848
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’39.252
3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1’39.313
4. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1’39.351
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’39.568
6. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1’39.727
7. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1’39.845
8. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’39.932
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’40.333
10. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’40.442
11. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1’40.576
12. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1’41.026
13. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1’41.177
14. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1’41.292
15. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1’41.311
16. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1’41.699
17. Niccolò Canepa (ITA) Ducati Test 1’42.160
18. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1’42.970
19. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1’43.496
20. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’45.597

Nicky Hayden all fired up

Sandra — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:36:18 +0000

Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden took third place in today’s official preseason MotoGP practice session – the first actual competition of the year, in which MotoGP riders compete to win a BMW car.

The American was fired up for the 40-minute qualifying-style shootout which was run on a wet track following heavy morning rainfall.

Nicky Hayden is hoping for better weather tomorrow to allow him to continue work on development of the 2008 RC212V machine before they head to Qatar for the final preseason tests on February 28 and 29, one week before the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix.

Nicky Hayden – fastest lap: 1m 50.785s (lap 15 of 16)

“It was fun, because it’s a bit of competition, and not just because there was a car on the line, we could’ve been racing for a piece of bubblegum and everybody would’ve tried just as hard! We’re all competitors and it was pretty fun but conditions were not ideal.

I wish they had been a little more stable, but right at the end when the clock was about to hit zero the conditions were almost at their worst, they were about to go dry. We did our best time a little earlier in the session. We ran full rains throughout, I seen that 49 and knew that was going to be tough, Casey (Stoner) really put one down.

Nonetheless the bike was working pretty good in the rain. I’m not happy about third but for me those intermediate conditions – a little patchy with a dry line starting to form – are about the worst. That’s something I’ve definitely been working on and thinking a lot about, so in some ways I’m happy we did okay in those conditions. Full rain’s normally not too bad for me and the dry’s not bad but that in between bit is quite tricky, so we’ve worked a lot on that.

It’s been a positive day, even this morning in the rain we didn’t have to make any big changes to get the bike reasonable. We were really good in the full wet, the Michelins were working good and there was one front in particular that I liked. We just need to improve some more in those in between conditions.”

MotoGP Test Times Jerez – Day 2

1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1?49.263
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1?50.580
3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1?50.785
4. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1?50.799
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1?51.312
6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1?51.594
7. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1?51.894
8. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1?51.979
9. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1?52.058
10. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1?52.238
11. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1?52.463
12. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1?52.755
13. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1?52.779
14. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1?52.826
15. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1?53.283
16. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1?53.292
17. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1?54.694
18. Niccolò Canepa (ITA) Ducati Test 1?57.453
19. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1?57.698

Nicky Hayden fastest on day 1 of MotoGP test in Jerez

Sandra — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:42:32 +0000

American Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda topped the times sheet at the end of day one of the three-day IRTA MotoGP test at Jerez today. In cool 18 degree temperatures and windy conditions Hayden, from Owensboro, Kentucky, put in an amazing 107 laps of the 4.423 km Spanish circuit. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion tested a variation of the latest RCV chassis which has a modified stiffness characteristic to the chassis he has run with in the previous two winter tests, while running with the 2008 version of the RC212V equipped with standard valve springs. Nicky Hayden also spent a large part of his day testing new tyres for Michelin.

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1’39.200 – on lap 84 of 107

“All in all, a pretty positive day. I would definitely say this was the best first day of tests we’ve had so far this year. And we knew it was important, because the weather experts are saying there’s a really good chance of rain the next two days. I tried a different chassis, it felt slightly better with a little more feel on the front, so we used that most of the day and it felt pretty good. We went through a few other things, not making big changes because we’re getting closer to the season now, just a few little settings changes, and when I thought things felt better the stopwatch normally went along with it, which is always good. At the end I did race distance and it didn’t feel too bad. We were able to get into the 40s on race tyres, though we still need to get in there a little deeper, we still need to improve a bit.”

MotoGP Test Times – Day 1

1. Nicky Hayden Honda 1’39.200
2. Randy De Puniet Honda 1’39.444
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1’39.528
4. Colin Edwards Yamaha 1’39.629
5. James Toseland Yamaha 1’39.678
6. Alex De Angelis Honda 1’40.165
7. Shinya Nakano Honda 1’40.192
8. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1’40.641
9. Casey Stoner Ducati 1’40.651
10. Andrea Doviziosi Honda 1’40.767
11. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1’40.843
12. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1’41.352
13. Marco Melandri Ducati 1’41.392
14. Toni Elias Ducati 1’41.703
15. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1’41.763
16. Anthony West Kawasaki 1’41.821
17. John Hopkins Kawasaki 1’41.901
18. Olivier Jacque Kawasaki 1’42.557
19. Niccolo Canepa Ducati 1’42.652
20. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati 1’42.698
21. Vittoriano Guareschi Ducati 1’43.435