Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden ended a tough weekend at Laguna Seca this afternoon with a determined ride to fifth place. The American was the Repsol Honda team’s sole representative in the US GP after team-mate Dani Pedrosa yesterday withdrew due to the severity of the injuries he suffered in Germany last Sunday.
Hayden made a great start from the front row of the grid, holding third place for the first seven laps. He then spent the middle stage of the race battling for fourth place with Andrea Dovizioso, eventually finishing just behind the Italian. Hayden won this race in 2005 and 2006 but today he recorded his fastest-ever Laguna race time, 25 seconds quicker than his winning 2006 pace. He was a non-finisher last year.
Pedrosa flew home to Barcelona yesterday and will spend the sport’s traditional summer break recuperating from his injuries in order to be in the best-possible shape for the next race at Brno in the Czech Republic on August 17.
Nicky Hayden, finished fifth, eighth in World Championship
“Obviously at my home race I’d hoped to be able to put up a better fight than that. It was certainly a tough weekend, we struggled a bit with the tyres we had available. We really had only two race tyres, the one I used in practice I kept using again and again, I used it Friday, Saturday and again this morning, by the end it had 35 laps on it. I think I learned a good lesson, we set up the bike on quite old tyres. In the race when we put in a grippy new race tyre the balance of the bike changed a lot, so it was pushing the front in a lot of places. I would’ve liked to have been closer to the front but I think we learned a good lesson. Now we’ve got a few weeks off, so we’ll regroup and try to finish the year strong. Hopefully I can improve and they can do some work in Japan.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“It was a difficult race today and Nicky kept fighting, first for the podium and then for fourth position. In the end he finished fifth and this is not the result we expected and that we were fighting for. Anyway, after a difficult weekend, Nicky and the team did a good job. Now we look forward to going to Brno after the three-week break with the complete Repsol Honda duo and fighting for the podium with both riders.”
MotoGP Race:
1. V. ROSSI - ITA - Fiat Yamaha Team 44'04.311
2. C. STONER - AUS - Ducati Team + 13.001
3. C. VERMEULEN - AUS - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 26.609
4. A. DOVIZIOSO - ITA - JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 34.901
5. N. HAYDEN - USA - Repsol Honda Team + 35.663
6. R. DE PUNIET - FRA - LCR Honda MotoGP + 37.668
7. T. ELIAS - SPA - Alice Team + 41.629
8. B. SPIES - USA - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 41.927
9. J. TOSELAND - GBR - Tech 3 Yamaha + 43.019
10. S. NAKANO - JPN - San Carlo Honda Gresini + 44.391
11. J. HACKING - USA - Kawasaki Racing Team + 46.258
12. S. GUINTOLI - FRA - Alice Team + 55.273
13. A. DE ANGELIS - RSM - San Carlo Honda Gresini + 55.521
14. C. EDWARDS - USA - Tech 3 Yamaha + 1'02.380
15. L. CAPIROSSI - ITA - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1'08.207
16. M. MELANDRI - ITA - Ducati Team + 1'10.962
17. A. WEST - AUS - Kawasaki Racing Team 1 Lap
Not finished 1st lap
J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team
World Championship:
1. 1 ROSSI Valentino ITA 212
2. STONER Casey AUS 187
3. PEDROSA Dani SPA 171
4. LORENZO Jorge SPA 114
5. DOVIZIOSO Andrea ITA 103
6. EDWARDS Colin USA 100
7. VERMEULEN Chris AUS 89
8. HAYDEN Nicky USA 84
9. TOSELAND James GBR 72
10. NAKANO Shinya JPN 70
11. CAPIROSSI Loris ITA 61
12. ELIAS Toni SPA 46
13. DE ANGELIS Alex RSM 41
14. DE PUNIET Randy FRA 40
15. GUINTOLI Sylvain FRA 38
16. HOPKINS John USA 32
17. MELANDRI Marco ITA 32
18. WEST Anthony AUS 22
19. SPIES Ben USA 10
20. HACKING Jamie USA 5
21. OKADA Tadayuki JPN 2
Constructor Points:
1. Yamaha 241
2. Honda 197
3. Ducati 192
4. Suzuki 112
5. Kawasaki 52
Team Points:
1. Fiat Yamaha Team 326
2. Repsol Honda Team 255
3. Ducati Marlboro Team 219
4. Tech 3 Yamaha 172
5. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 152
6. San Carlo Honda Gresi 111
7. JIR Team Scot MotoGP 103
8. Alice Team 84
9. Kawasaki Racing Team 59
10. LCR Honda MotoGP 40
