Nicky Hayden’s hard-fought result proved that the 2006 World Champion is really building momentum after a tough weekend at the season-opening Qatar GP. Just a tenth off the front row in qualifying, Hayden got a storming start that gave him the chance to run with the leaders. He did just that and was very much in the hunt for a podium finish, chasing Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, until he had a close call at turn one with five laps to go.
Nicky Hayden – 4th place
“It was fun to be competitive, to come into that stadium section the first lap with 130,000 people coming alive, bombs going off, it was cool, it was nice to be there in the mix. Obviously we’d like to have been having some bubbly afterwards, but the bike worked the best it’s worked all weekend and I was pushing hard.
After I dropped back a bit I made a run on them, I was trying to give those guys a fight. Then I stayed on the brake a bit too long into turn one and pretty much crashed. It was elbow down and I thought it was done, but the front tyre was good, so I picked it up on the knee and saved it. You can ride these bikes so hard now and the front tyres are so good, that’s the first time I’ve done that. Click here to read more
1. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda 25 points
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha 20 points
3. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha 16 points
4. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda 13 points
5. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki 11 points
6. James Toseland GBR Tech 3 Yamaha 10 points
7. John Hopkins USA Kawasaki Racing 9 points
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA JiR Team Scot 8 points Click here to read more
Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden delivered an impressive qualifying performance at sun-blessed Jerez today. Nicky Hayden was just a fraction of a second behind his team-mate in fourth. That session backed up similarly strong showings during free practice.
Nicky Hayden ended the day a tantalising 0.107 seconds off the front row. The American is now running both his RC212Vs with the latest chassis and will be working hard in warm-up to find that last bit of pace to allow him to battle up front.
Nicky Hayden, fourth fastest, 1m 39.061s
“We’ve made a bit of progress, but this afternoon a lot of guys went quicker and we didn’t quite have the feeling I was looking for to get the rhythm. I need to be dangerous tomorrow. Definitely need to try to step it up in warm-up; me, the bike, everything’s going to need more speed if we want to be up there. It’s mainly getting the front working better over the bumps, though the bike/tyre combination’s not so bad. Click here to read more
1. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1’38.189
2. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1’38.789
3. Colin Edwards USA Yamaha Tech 3 (M) 1’38.954
4. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1’39.061
5. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (B) 1’39.064
6. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP (M) 1’39.122
7. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1’39.286
8. James Toseland GBR Yamaha Tech 3 (M) 1’39.334 Click here to read more
Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden made a strong start to the Spanish GP weekend today, ending the first two practice sessions fourth fastest.
Nicky Hayden’s best lap times were around lap record pace and less than half a second off today’s fastest lap. Nicky Hayden used a new spec chassis to achieve his best times of the day and prefers the new unit’s characteristics. Tomorrow the Repsol Honda rider will concentrate on longer tyre runs aboard the RC212Vs to prepare for Sunday’s race, round two of the 18-event 2008 MotoGP season.
Nicky Hayden, fourth fastest, 1m 40.673s
“We’re certainly a lot closer than we were at Qatar, which makes it a lot more fun. We were on top for part of the session, stayed up near the front a lot and we made a pretty big step between morning and afternoon, almost a half second. Overall the bikes seem not so bad and Michelins always work good at Jerez. We had a pretty good set-up from when we here for the tests in February, so tyre-wise, bike-wise, it’s not a lot different, though I did try a new chassis that definitely seemed to help, and I made my best lap times with it. We’re going to talk about running both bikes with the new chassis tomorrow. Every-thing’s pretty smooth so far, so big thanks to HRC for bringing me an improvement and to the team for everything. But it’s still early, there’s a lot of guys going fast, so we’ll see where we’re at come Sunday.”
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