Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai, Repsol Honda Press ReleaseMay 4

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's Comments

“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. There was a lot of good battling going on but it would’ve been better to have been battling for a better position. I didn’t give up, kept pushing and picked off a few guys near the end.”

Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai

Repsol Honda rider Nicky 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's Comments

“Qualifying didn’t go to plan, really. It was okay in the beginning, we were quite up front on race tyres. With my first qualifier I went to first place for a second, then with my second qualifier I just had an easy front push in turn 11 and down I went. I had a pretty good lap going but just didn’t get it down. The track is so long and so big it took me forever to get back to the pits, a little bit walking, a little bit scooter. Then I just got out on the other bike and did one run and didn’t get the chance to improve my time. It was a pity because things were looking quite good on race tyres – this morning I did over race distance and was quite happy. This afternoon the track felt a bit greasy, there were a lot of guys crashing. I’ve put myself in a nice hole starting tenth, I haven’t qualified off the front two rows in the dry since Barcelona last year. I’m going to need an awesome start, try to pick a few guys off and move forward.”

Nicky to ride at Indy 500!

The American will thus get the chance to introduce MotoGP machinery to the world's largest single-day spectator sporting event audience - potentially as high as 300,000 - prior to the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP, to be held on September 14 around the circuit's new 2.620-mile road course.

Hayden will ride around the legendary 2.5-mile oval aboard the 2007 Repsol Honda RC212V on which he competed in the 2008 season-opening Grand Prix of Qatar on March 9, approximately one hour before the start of the 92nd Indy 500.

"What an opportunity for the sport, my sponsors and most of all, for me!" beamed Hayden. "This is going to be cool, to do a lap in front of such a huge audience live and on TV on what is arguably the most famous track and race in the whole world. I hope the fans like what they see and hear, and hope they plan on coming back in September when the bikes roll out at IMS for the first time in a long time.

 Nicky Comments

"I just need to get it straight with the officials that I don't mind rolling round in second gear waving to the fans, but when I come off Turn 4, the Pace Car needs to hold its line because as I head toward the bricks, I plan to open that baby up a little and blow out the cobwebs a little," he warned. The demonstration ride will mark Hayden's second trip to Indianapolis in as many months.

The Kentuckian officially christened the new Indianapolis road course with a lap on a vintage Indian motorcycle that competed in the only other motorcycle race at IMS, in 1909, and also turned laps on a Honda CBR1000 production bike.

Race Report Estoril - Repsol Honda Press Release

Gallant Hayden was also 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's Comments

“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. I got settled in, and the warmer I was getting the tyres the better they were working and I was able to start moving up, so things were feeling pretty good. I made a few passes, I’d just got into fourth, felt like I wanted to close the gap on the guys in front of me. You know, I got fourth place at Jerez and I certainly didn’t want to settle in there and ride around, so I had to push hard and you know when you push hard you make mistakes. It’s not a parade you can’t just cruise around. The bike was working good, the tyres were working good, I felt pretty comfortable, so I was pushing. Turn seven’s downhill, certainly a trick corner, the front let go pretty early and down I went. It’s unfortunate because the bike was working good and we were hungry for a good result, so my own mistake. We just have to step it up a bit."
 

Repsol Honda Portuguese Grand Prix, EstorilApril 12

Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden was once again in storming form in qualifying, fourth places on the Estoril grid, just as he did at Jerez two weeks ago.

Nicky Hayden was a tantalising seven hundredths of a second off his first front-row start of the year and may have made the front row if he hadn’t been baulked on one of his qualifying runs. The biggest question on the rider's  mind is the Estoril weather which is proving to be as unpredictable as ever.

Nicky's Comment 

“Our target was always to start from the front row and we achieved it. We are happy with today’s qualifying result, especially because it’s very important to start from the front row at this track and because qualifying isn’t our strong point at the moment. Our race pace was good today, but we still want to try and improve the bike a little bit more, working on the chassis settings. Also, we haven’t chosen which tyres we will use tomorrow because the weather conditions are so changeable here, so we will have wait a bit more. 

The big question is what the weather will do tomorrow afternoon. I’m looking forward to the race. It will be very important to make a good start, then we will see what we can do from there. I expect it to be very close at the front tomorrow because there’s a lot of riders going fast here, for sure it’s going to be tough.”

 

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Estoril Free Practice - Repsol Honda press release11 April

Nicky Hayden just 0.181 seconds down in fourth place. 2006 MotoGP World Champion Hayden was happy with his day’s work, making only minor changes to his RC212V’s setup, and is looking forward to further progress tomorrow.

Last year Hayden got pole position and the lap record here, while Pedrosa finished the race in second place.

Nicky's Comments

“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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EVENT PREVIEW - PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX, ESTORILRepsol Honda Press Release

Repsol Honda RC212V riderNicky Hayden heads into the Portuguese Grand Prix aiming to keep improving following a superb Spanish GP. 2006 MotoGP champ Hayden took an excellent fourth-place finish after running with the leaders.

Nicky spent two further days at Jerez testing components, tyres and setup options that should put them in even better shape at Estoril. Meanwhile Hayden set the fastest lap of the tests while evaluating Michelin rear tyres and some new clutch parts for smoother corner entries.

Estoril is a complex and tricky circuit with some dramatic contrasts – the chicane is MotoGP’s slowest corner and the kink onto the back straight is one of the fastest. Riders need a well-balanced machine that is manageable in slower turns and stable in the fast sweepers, with good top speed for the 320km/h-199mph main straight and excellent braking stability.
Hayden is the current Estoril lap record holder and also took pole position at last year’s event

Nicky's Comment

“Hopefully we’ve got things rolling now. Jerez wasn’t bad, good enough to make me look forward to Estoril where we’ll be working to keep going forward. It’s is an old-school track, it’s a strange little place, not very wide and kinda odd. It can be a lot of fun or it can be miserable. It’s got that little bus-stop chicane which is probably the slowest corner in MotoGP, but I really like the right-hand kink onto the back straightaway, that’s pretty fast and cool. And I love the last corner coming onto the front straightaway – when the bike works good and steers through there it can be pretty fun. Obviously you want something with some horsepower because the front straightaway goes on for days. And you need something to get through the tight, twisty bits. One other thing, there’s definitely a lot more right-handers, so you need softer compounds on the left side of the tyres.”