Nicky Hayden tumbled out of fourth place today while sneaking up on the leading trio. The opening laps of the race were especially tricky for the Kentucky Kid because light rain showers had dampened several sections of the circuit.
2006 MotoGP world champion Hayden was charging hard, moving through the pack from seventh place on the first place, picking off rivals here and there until he found himself in fourth place just after half way. The American had been chipping away at the leading group, closing a few tenths every lap, until he lost the front and fell going into turn seven on lap 17. His pace had been impressive, good enough for the third fastest lap of the race.
Nicky Hayden; DNF, 10th in World Championship
“The first few laps were certainly not easy, some parts of the track were a little wetter than others and I had on a pretty hard tyre. I had been choosing between that tyre and another a little bit softer, but with the way the weather’s been this weekend we really hadn’t got to do a lot of endurance on the harder one. Click here to read more
1. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha 25 points
2. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda 20 points
3. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha 16 points
4. Colin Edwards USA Tech 3 Yamaha 13 points
5. John Hopkins USA Kawasaki Racing 11 points
6. Casey Stoner AUS Marlboro Ducati 10 points
7. James Toseland GBR Tech 3 Yamaha 9 points
8. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki 8 points Click here to read more
A great performance today by Nicky Hayden at the timed training sessions of the Portugese Grand Prix. Nicky Hayden will start off tomorrow heading the second row, after he finished today in fourth place, keeping up a good pace throughout the day.
Nicky Hayden today gave another fine perfromance on his Repsol Honda RC212V 2008, confirming the visible improvements he made a fortnight ago in Jerez. The Repsol rider was third in the free training session, finally falling to fourth – second row on the starting grid – in the timed sessions.
Nicky Hayden – 1′36.266 secs, 55 laps, 230 Km.
“We’re right there, but just missing that last little bit. Everything went relatively smooth today, though I definitely thought we were capable of being on the front row – bike, tyres, even the rider – but we just didn’t get it done. Race pace I don’t think we’re a long way off but definitely we could do with a bit more. Click here to read more
1. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1′35.715
2. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1′35.948
3. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (B) 1′36.199
4. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1′36.266
5. Colin Edwards USA Tech 3 Yamaha (M) 1′36.289
6. James Toseland GBR Tech 3 Yamaha (M) 1′36.790
7. Andrea Dovizioso ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP (M) 1′36.998
8. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP (M) 1′37.223 Click here to read more
2006 MotoGP World Champion Hayden was happy with his first day’s work at the GP of Portugal, making only minor changes to his RC212V’s setup, and is looking forward to further progress tomorrow. Last year Nicky Hayden got pole position and the lap record here.
Nicky Hayden – 4th fastest – 1′38.688
“Everything went pretty well, it’s been quite a positive day, I think we had a pretty good start to things. Sure we’re gonna have to improve a little bit, but seems like in the wet and dry we got a bike working relatively well, so if we can sweeten up a few things tomorrow, hopefully we can really be up there come Sunday. More or less the bike was working okay without a lot of big changes, so we’re running a pretty similar setup to what I ran at Jerez, just a few little clickers here and there. Conditions were not easy, the morning was wet, then half and half and the afternoon was a little bit patchy and windy, so sure it was quite challenging, but the team’s done a good job and we’ve got a pretty decent setup, so we’ll see tomorrow.”
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