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)

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.”

At one point during the second session the rain was heavy enough to bring riders into the pits, but during most of the hour only a light drizzle fell, not enough to force riders to switch to treaded tyres but enough to prevent them from fully exploiting their slick tyres. Lap times hardly improved throughout the day, FP2 only a few hundredths faster than FP1 and Hayden just a tenth faster second time out. The MotoGP pack was impressively close today, considering this is MotoGP longest racetrack with a two minutes-plus lap time, Hayden just eight tenths off the best lap of the day.

Nicky Hayden, 9th fastest, 2′03.550

“Obviously I don’t like to be down in ninth, but we have made a little bit of progress today. The track was quite dirty this morning, there was a lot of sand around, but it seemed to clean up all right. This afternoon’s session was quite tricky, there was a light rain pretty much the whole session, but it’s so hot here that the rain is pretty much gone before it even touches the ground. The bike feels pretty decent and the tyres seem okay, so I’m confident that we can improve, that’s the plan. It was quite strange this afternoon. If that had been the race it would have been interesting – it was raining pretty heavy at one point, everybody came into the pits at one point. It’s been doing that the last couple of afternoons, so maybe it’ll be like that on Sunday. We haven’t had a half-and-half race for a while, so maybe that would be quite cool. Now my foot’s better I can switch bikes and they’ve got a big wide pit road here, so it might be fun, but I’d better be careful what I wish for.”

Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager

“The weather conditions could be a very important factor here over the next few days. We have had some rain over the last two afternoons, so it would be useful if we could have a fully wet session in case it rains on Sunday. Nicky seems to be getting on okay, he is working on set-up as usual, but he has no big settings issues to work on.”