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 enjoyed a busy race during which he battled long and hard for a sixth-place finish. Hayden made a great start from the fourth row of the grid and spent the race fighting back and forth with a number of rivals including Marco Melandri, Andrea Dovizioso, Colin Edwards and Lorenzo. Down in eighth at one stage, he modified his lines and adjusted his traction control to fight back to take sixth during the final few laps.
Nicky Hayden:
“We knew starting tenth was never going to be easy. I crashed my number one bike in qualifying, then this morning I rode the other bike, so I started the race with the bike I’d crashed but it was fine. I got a really good start and a good first corner too, but I just couldn’t go with the lead group today.
We had a huge tailwind on the back straightaway, so I was running out of gear. It made it so hard to get it stopped for the corner at the end of the straight, so a lot of guys were running wide. Mid-race I had a few problems, felt a few drops of rain, and my corner speed in the long corners wasn’t so good. Towards the end I changed a few little things with my lines and the traction control settings. I started to move forward and at the end I was going pretty good. Click here to read more
Repsol Honda riderNicky Hayden fought hard in a tough qualifying session at Shanghai this afternoon, ending up tenth quickest. There were several fallers this afternoon, Hayden one of them. The American slid off with 18 minutes to go while on a red-hot qualifying lap that would have put him much closer to the front of the grid. The tumble also lost Hayden some momentum because it took him a crucial five minutes to get back to his pit and collect his number-two machine. He ended the session just a fraction off a third-row start. Latest race-day weather forecasts predict rain for the Shanghai area.
Nicky Hayden, 10th fastest, 1m 59.507 Click here to read more
1. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (B) 1′59.906 *
2. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 2′00.163
3. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 2′00.361
4. Shinya Nakano JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini (B) 2′00.553
5. John Hopkins USA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 2′00.591
6. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (M) 2′00.607
7. Alex de Angelis RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini (B) 2′0 0.931
8. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 2′00.964 Click here to read more
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
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