Malaysia - Race Weekend News

Malaysian GP Race Report -Stoner takes victory, Hayden 5th!October 25

Ducati MotoGP Team rider Casey Stoner took his second victory in succession today with a display of absolute dominance in torrential conditions at Sepang, where his team-mate Nicky Hayden picked up a fantastic fifth place. A heavy tropical downpour just moments before the riders were due to take to the track for the penultimate round of the season saw the race delayed by 36 minutes, but once the lights went out Stoner proved once again that he is a master of any condition. After taking the lead on the first lap the Australian opened up an advantage of almost four seconds by the end of the second circulation – increasing it lap by lap to over 17 seconds at one point as he stormed to his fourth victory of the season, becoming the first rider ever to win at Sepang from the second row of the grid.

Nicky Hayden also produced an excellent demonstration of wet weather riding as he guided his Desmosedici GP9 to fifth place from seventh on the grid. The American was involved in a series of breathtaking battles throughout the 22-lap affair, passing Loris Capirossi and Toni Elias with his trademark style and determination and fighting to hold off title contenders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Third place for the Italian eventually sealed the championship with one round remaining at Valencia in two weeks’ time, when Stoner and Hayden will look to be amongst the frontrunners once again.

Nicky Hayden – (Ducati MotoGP Team)  (5th)

“We’ll take a top five, that’ll work for us. I was quite excited when it started to rain because I’ve been on the pace with this bike in the wet this year and I felt I could do something special. Unfortunately I struggled a lot on the brakes in the beginning and a lot of guys came past. From there I had a lot of fun passing and fighting with people, trying to close down the gap to the lead group, but I was just missing a little bit to really go with Rossi and Lorenzo and try to fight for the podium. When Vermeulen came I knew he was a rain specialist so I pushed hard to make sure he didn’t see a crack in the door and think he could push it open. I’ve been fourth here five times so I’m only one spot off my mark! After Phillip Island it seems every time we try to get something going we have huge bad luck but I’m thankful I have a team who keep working and never give up – we’re trying to build something here together and we’re making progress. Even this weekend we were consistently up near the top. I have to say congratulations to Casey and Valentino. It wasn’t a terrible day for us either but now we go to Valencia and try to build on it again.”

Casey Stoner (Ducati MotoGP Team)  (1st)

"I didn’t get a brilliant start but I was happy to be in fourth as we came out of turn two and by the end of the first lap I was clear by a second. I have to be honest, I didn’t expect to be so far ahead so early in the race but when I looked up and saw 3 seconds on my pit board I decided to step the pace up even more and try an escape. I kept pulling out a second a lap and then eventually decided to back it off and not take any risks. This is another fantastic day for us and I want to thank everybody in the team for their effort. We’ve struggled with the bike in the wet this season but everybody has worked so well and the difference today was clear to see. We’re really strong now and I can only see us getting stronger from here, which is great news for next season. I want to congratulate Valentino because to win nine World Championships is an incredible achievement. I’m sure that if we continue to work like this ourselves we can put up a much stronger challenge next time.”

Livio Suppo – MotoGP Project Director

“That was a really wonderful and unique day, for the way the conditions changed so quickly and the way our team reacted to it, and for the positive result for both of our riders. Casey produced something extraordinary, dominating from the first to the final lap, whilst Nicky battled hard from the start and brought home an important fifth place that shows how well we have worked both at the track and back at the factory throughout the year. It is a season that saw Casey make a great start before going through some difficulties and then coming back in style, whilst Nicky had a tough start himself but he has made constant progress and he is finishing it in a positive way that we hope carries through to next year.”

Qualifying Report - Stoner and Hayden on second and third row at SepangOctober 24

Ducati MotoGP Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden will start the Malaysian Grand Prix from the second and third rows of the grid respectively tomorrow after a hard-fought qualifying practice at Sepang.

Stoner was disappointed to qualify fourth fastest after dominating the early stages of the session, only to suffer some set up problem in the final half hour that prevented him from challenging for pole position. His best time of 2’01.455 came on just his seventh lap of eighteen, when he was riding the hardest compound on tyres which had, respectively 25 laps on the front and 14 on the rear, whilst by comparison the eventual pole time came from Valentino Rossi on his twentieth lap.

Nicky Hayden – (Ducati MotoGP Team)  (7th; 2’01.980)

“I didn’t actually make as big a step this afternoon as I had hoped from the morning session. On race tyres in the hotter temperature it was certainly tough and I was struggling a little bit. We had a couple of problems during the session but in the end I was able to find one good lap to get me into a respectable grid position, very close to the second row. I’m not too happy with my race pace – we’re missing a few tenths and we have some work to do tonight to try and find where we can make them up. I’m never really happy with seventh place but to be honest today it was a pleasant surprise because it could have been much worse off than that if we were just a few tenths slower. We’ve got a big job to do. 22 laps around here when your race pace isn’t perfect is certainly not easy but that’s what we train for. Hopefully we can improve in the warm-up, get a good start and we’ll see what we got for them.

Casey Stoner (Ducati MotoGP Team)  (4th; 2’01.455)

"I’m really disappointed with that session because I know we could and should have been fighting for pole position. I had a much better feeling with the setting at the start of the session but midway through we went to change tyres and after that we suffered from a huge vibration in the bike. We still haven’t worked out what it is yet so we need to figure it out and fix it for tomorrow. I tried the softer compound but the chattering was even worse. I swapped to my other bike but we had a different setting in it that I hadn’t tried and I didn’t feel comfortable. Everything that could go wrong in the crucial second part of the session did go wrong but if we can fix this problem then we’ll be in good shape for tomorrow. Anyway I’m happy with my pace in race conditions and I look forward to tomorrow” tomorrow. 22 laps around here when your race pace isn’t perfect is certainly not easy but that’s what we train for. Hopefully we can improve in the warm-up, get a good start and we’ll see what we got for them. ”

Stoner & Hayden on the attack in Malaysian heatwaveFriday October 23

Ducati MotoGP Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden started out the Malaysian Grand Prix on the front foot at Sepang, with the Australian second and the American eighth fastest in the first free practice session this afternoon.

Stoner demonstrated his improved strength and stamina in the gruelling conditions, with 31ºC ambient temperatures and 53% humidity, by lapping on the cusp of circuit record pace and improving throughout the 45-minute session – clocking his best time on his final lap, which was just 0.064 seconds shy of the day’s pacesetter Jorge Lorenzo. Hayden also made gradual improvements and, like Stoner, he set his best lap time on his final effort, falling just 0.067 seconds short of another Spaniard in Toni Elias in seventh place.

Nicky Hayden – (Ducati MotoGP Team) (8th; 2’03.426)

“I know my position isn’t great but this is still the best Friday I’ve had in a while and we’re only just over a second off the front, which isn’t that much around this circuit, so I’m pleased. We made a change to the electronics today, which has improved my feeling for the bike, and I was able to lap consistently inside the top ten throughout the session, whereas usually I’m much further off in the first session. Obviously there are a lot of areas we need to improve, like every Friday, but in particular we need to look at why I am fourth from bottom on the top speed charts. That’s strange because we know we have a strong bike so we’ll try and fix that tonight because I’d certainly rather be fourth from the top! In general it’s a good start and I’m eager to see how much we can improve with ninety minutes on track tomorrow.

Casey Stoner (Ducati MotoGP Team) (2nd; 2’02.244)

"The lap times are surprisingly good considering the track conditions, which are definitely suffering from the heat and feel much less grippy than usual here. I’m happy with our pace and with my physical condition; even though it was hard work out there and I was tired by the end of the session, I don’t think I was any worse off than anybody else and it is a different world compared to the way I felt at hot races earlier in the year. Having said that I didn’t feel at all comfortable with the setting on either bike. Every time I went out there was a small problem holding us back – at first it was with the front chattering and folding, then we lost grip on the rear. There was no use staying out there on a bike that needed to be set up better so I had to keep coming in, which disrupted our rhythm and didn’t give me chance to establish any kind of feeling. We made progress step by step but we need a better base to start off with tomorrow in order to prepare properly for the race.”