Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner claims his pass over Nicky Hayden at Motegi

Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner claims his pass over Nicky Hayden at Motegi

Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner has said that his pass over Nicky Hayden of Ducati was not risky which he made during the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix at the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit on Sunday, October 2.

After Stoner ran wide during the fifth lap, the Aussie had to run back to the top for a podium finish.

In an effort of rising from seventh position in the race, Stoner had to push hard aggressively. During the several passes that he made to claim a third position on the podium, he had to overtake Nicky Hayden.

Stoner said, "Nah, I didn't get in there too hot. It's a thing that Nicky does. When you pass him he doesn't want to give up the position. It happened to me with him at Indianapolis, I think, last year."

The Aussie rider went on to recover his lost positions in the race and overtook former Ducati teammate Nicky Hayden. Following the race, it was speculated that Stoner made an aggressive pass over Hayden.

On this note Stoner stated it is normal for Hayden to ignore a rider that tends to overtake him.

Stoner further added, "You go up the inside and he keeps leaning on you, and leaning on you. That's basically all that happened. I went in there with plenty of room. I could have easily made the corner if he just didn't lean on me."

The 2012 championship leader, Stoner claimed that as he entered his inside line, Hayden started to lean over to his side and carried on doing so. In that situation, Stoner decided to release his brakes and move ahead realising his presence besides him.

He added that he had to make this advancement as he feared Hayden was going to ignore his presence.

The frustration and chaos filled Japanese race did give Stoner a podium position but his lead has dropped to 40 points from Jorge Lorenzo.
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Nicky Hayden happy with new Indianapolis surface

Nicky Hayden happy with new Indianapolis surface

While most if the MotoGP riders have had their feet up, resting their aches and pains from the first half of the season, Nicky Hayden has been back on track in his Dainese leathers.

The 2006 world champion was selected to be the first rider to test the new track surface at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

All riders will race there for the US Grand Prix on August 28th, but Hayden was given a sneak preview of the new course surface and the added grip it now offers.

Hayden revealed that the treacherous bumps in turn six - the site of many crashes last year - have now been smoothed, making the circuit safer overall.

"I think it'll make for better racing because there will be more places to pass. Just a more enjoyable, more fun track, so I know all the riders love Indy anyway and it's only going to make it better," he added.

Hayden currently sits seventh in the world championship, 14 points behind teammate Valentino Rossi.

Posted by Marcus Blackburn

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Error from Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden drops him to eighth at Sachsenring

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Error from Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden drops him to eighth at Sachsenring ... - bettor.com (blog)

A last corner error from Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden dropped him to eighth in the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland.

Hayden’s last corner tackle was not strong enough to hold off Bautista from taking the seventh position.

The American rider was slightly disappointed from the results especially considering the track where he likes to race and has collected multiple podium finishes.

Hayden was placed eighth for the race start after a tough qualifying session. In fact, both Ducati riders were lying far behind their expected performances. Both Ducati garages were fighting to improve their Desmosedicis for the demands of the German track.

Hayden said, “I tried to go with that group in front of me off the start, but about the second or third lap I had a pretty big moment over the bumps in Turn 1 and they took off. From there I had a big battle with Bautista and Vale.”

The race start was little help for the American rider but after a bad run, he was hooked down by Alvaro Bautista of the Rizla Suzuki team. After tangling with Bautista, Valentino Rossi also hopped into the fight for a seventh position and all three riders switched places several times.

Nicky Hayden commented on the race fight and said, “It was fun, with a lot of overtaking, but battling for seventh place, 27 seconds back is hard for me to take at a track that I love and where I’ve been on the podium several times. I got to seventh toward the end and did my best lap, but they came with me.”

Hayden further explained his race situation that the Spaniard caught him at the end of the waterfall turn. Bautista overtook Hayden at that point and in the final corner, the American rider made his move to snatch the seventh place.

Still Bautista did not let it go away and despite of losing position to both Ducatis, he picked the inside line and jumped back to a seventh place finish on the final few metres to the finish line.

The American regretted his tyre choice but still he was grateful to his crew which made a great effort for the German race weekend. Now Ducati will move to Laguna Seca for Hayden’s home event on July 24, 2011.

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Hayden unsure of Laguna Seca GP11.1 debut

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Hayden unsure of Laguna Seca GP11.1 debut - BSN

Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden is still unsure whether he should race the new GP11.1 at this weekend't Laguna Seca MotoGP round as it may end up costing him a precious engine from his already depleted allocation of six to last to the end of the year.

He had hoped to ride the bike at the Sachsenring but a shortage of parts meant only team-mate Valentino Rossi did that. Hayden beat the nine-time world champion but says Laguna Seca is now getting bumpy and isn't an ideal place to be doing back-to-back tests.

"We're going to send both bikes and we might try one of the new ones because we're not really getting anywhere. At the the end of the day, Vale and I are basically the same, I don't think there is a whole lot of difference but he definitely feels there is more potential with the new one and so do the engineers. The sooner we get going on it the better it will be for the end of the year and the start of next," said the American.

"We will send them but I don't know which one to ride. The only way to be clear is to go with two of each, not one of each so we can do a back-to-back test. Laguna is not an easy track to be testing bikes though but is a track I love. The gap to the front is a lot, I got beat in Germany by 27 seconds and I was riding hard. Pushing hard to get beaten by that much definitely stings."

"We can try both on Friday and for Saturday have two the same but the problem is if I leave the pits on the new one and I don't like it I have used another engine. We have got a lot of stuff going against us and it's not an ideal situation."

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Ducati Analysed After Sachsenring

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Ducati Analysed After Sachsenring - FemaleFirst.co.uk

Ducati were able to take some positives away from Germany after Sundays race as factory riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi finished eight and ninth, respectively, in the German Grand Prix.

After a strong charge from fourteenth by Italian Rossi and a battle with Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista, another team showing signs of becoming competitive after a dismal season so far Rossi managed to secure ninth place.

The result isn't what the two Ducati Team riders had been hoping for when the started proceedings in earnest at Fridays free practice, but the work carried out over the weekend helped them to gather important data.

After Saturday’s very difficult qualifying session, Valentino and his team found a setting for the GP11.1 that enabled him to improve his pace by approximately five tenths.

During the race it was Nicky who won the duel with his teammate for eighth place, although he had hoped to be closer to the front after a good showing in practice.

It now looks as though 2011 may witness the previously unthinkable a full season without a win forValentino Rossi with Ducati so far off the Honda's and Yamaha's of the championship contenders Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner.

Can the mechanics use the data and close the gap or have they given up on 2011 and putting all the efforts into 2012

This is what the pair had to say at the post race press conference

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 8th

“I tried to go with that group in front of me off the start, but about the second or third lap I had a pretty big moment over the bumps in Turn 1 and they took off. From there I had a big battle with Bautista and Vale. It was fun, with a lot of overtaking, but battling for seventh place, 27 seconds back is hard for me to take at a track that I love and where I've been on the podium several times. I got to seventh toward the end and did my best lap, but they came with me. Bautista got me on my last lap, at the bottom of the hill. I re-passed him in the last corner, but he squared it up and nipped me to the line. It’s easy to say now, but I wish I raced the soft tyre. Thanks to the team and everybody that worked hard, but we had better hopes for today, going into Laguna.”

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 9th

“Today went a little better. This morning in the warm-up we made a change to the setup that helped me to slightly improve the feeling compared to the very, very difficult practice sessions. After the opening laps, I realized that my pace was the same as that of Nicky and Bautista’s group, maybe even a little faster, but I had small glitches with the gearbox in the second half of the race. It was mainly hurting me in the last corner, when I changed to third, because the bike wheelied and it took me half the straightaway before I could put it back down. At the end of the race, I wanted to pass Nicky on the brakes into the first corner, where I was pretty strong, but instead even Bautista passed me on the straight. Anyway, that’s not where we want to be. We definitely improved today compared to Saturday, but we're still too far back. We find the race setup late, and that makes everything more difficult, but in order to improve we have to try many things, which makes it easy to lose our direction. It’s understandable, because we don't know this bike well and I think we have to take chances and try everything. Now we'll analyse the data from this weekend and decide what to do for Laguna Seca.”

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