Hayden announces return to form with Losail display

Monday, 12 April 2010

The Ducati Marlboro rider finished fourth after a superb ride in Qatar, missing third place on the podium by only 0.011s.

Fourth in the opening race of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship served notice of Ducati Marlboro rider Nicky Hayden’s intentions for the forthcoming season, after he fought admirably throughout the race at the front of the field only to get beaten to third place on the finish line by Andrea Dovizioso.

Hayden was pipped across the line by a gap of just 0.011s by the Italian and was clearly gutted to have missed out on a season-opening podium finish when he reviewed the eventful race, which saw team-mate Casey Stoner crash out when leading early on.

“After qualifying in ninth I’d have taken fourth place in the race and been quite happy with it, but to have the bike working so well in the race and to get beat like that, it hurts!” admitted Hayden. “It would have been so great to start the season with at least a podium.”

“Nevertheless, we made a couple of little changes for the race which really helped the bike and I was able to ride how I wanted and push hard. It felt good to be up front, it wasn’t easy but I was pushing hard and it was achievable. I enjoyed the race, but it would be nice to have been up on the podium. I still think it’s a decent result to have gained, we have some good points and there is a long season to go. I’ll have plenty more opportunities so I’ll just have to come back and find that next bit.”

Hayden was encouraged by the level of his factory Desmosedici GP10 prototype, which he says is feeling great after round one.

He continued: “Our bike is good this year, I have no complaints. It sometimes takes me too long to get comfortable but this week we practiced and qualified in two days and it wasn’t until just before the race we made some small changes which gave me some better grip and just made the whole bike work better.”

“A big thanks to my team and everybody at Ducati as they have worked really hard to help me this winter, and we have made a lot of changes. It’s been a lot of work but I have enjoyed it and hopefully I can give them some results to repay them, and we can be up there every week.”

The American rider will now focus his energies on putting in another podium-challenging ride in Japan in just under two weeks’ time.

”Japan hasn’t been the greatest track for me over the last few years, so it’ll be hard but we’re going there to get our heads down and try to qualify well,” concluded Hayden.

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	165.8	42'50.099
2	20	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	165.7	+1.022
3	16	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	165.7	+1.865
4	13	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	165.7	+1.876
5	11	11	Ben SPIES	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	165.5	+3.903
6	10	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	165.2	+9.322
7	9	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	164.7	+16.508
8	8	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	164.5	+19.867
9	7	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	164.5	+20.893
10	6	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Interwetten Honda MotoGP	Honda	164.4	+21.100
11	5	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	163.8	+31.638
12	4	40	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Paginas Amarillas Aspar	Ducati	163.7	+32.573
13	3	33	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	163.2	+40.780
Not Classified
		19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	163.7	1 Lap
		41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	162.7	15 Laps
		27	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	164.4	17 Laps
		36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	156.1	20 Laps