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Nicky Hayden claimed some positive outlooks after a difficult Sunday at Sachsenring where he arrived in seventh spot,
after challenging for fifth with Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli.
“On paper seventh place doesn’t
look like a great result but after qualifying 15th yesterday actually it’s not so bad. I was running fifth but with
a few laps to go I lost the front coming through the Waterfall and went back to seventh, after which I couldn’t really
get back to them. Also on the last lap the bike jumped out a gear and I almost crashed so I’m happy to have picked up
points,” explains the Ducati racer.
“Of course fifth would have been a lot better but I’m proud
of my team because yesterday (Saturday) was probably the worst day of our season so far but they worked so hard to change
almost everything with the set-up, from the forks to the pivot and the shock. We tested it in the wet morning and it felt
okay – I was fifth fastest and comfortable so we rolled the dice and went for it in the race.”
Hayden
adds, “At the start I was able to recover a lot of positions and got up to sixth when the red flag came out, which did
me a favour because it closed the gap back up. I did not have the best feeling with the bike for a couple of laps, I was running
wide in a lot of places and it was difficult. From there I got into a very aggressive race with Dovi and Simoncelli - I got
rubber on both sides of my leathers but you expect that in MotoGP when you start 15th.”
The next race is
one where Hayden has excellent skills and looking to please his home crowd as he prepares for the Red Bull US Grand Prix.
He states, “It was a good battle with those guys and overall this is a much more positive result than it looks
ahead of my home race at Laguna.”
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