planetearth
There Can Be Only One
Number of posts : 3271
Registration date : 2007-02-03
 |  Subject: 'Horrible start for Hayden.'  Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:46 am | |
| - Quote :
- Reigning MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden endured a horrible start to his title defence by finishing day one of the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix in just 15th position.
The Repsol Honda rider had also struggled during the pre-season test at the Losail circuit and the set-up problems that hampered him then are still to be solved - then, to make matters worse, his rivals seem to have got even quicker.
"It hasn't been the way we really wanted to start the first race weekend of the season," reflected the #1 after being left 1.5secs from the top. "The problems I had testing here seem to have followed me back and it feels like I'm still in that little rut with trying to get the front to steer as I want it. It's still early though, so we're confident of improvements as we go on. There are some parts of the track where I feel really good and other parts don't feel that quick. So there's a lot of work to do and we'll definitely have a busy night trying to come up with some answers."
"It looks like the other teams have improved since the last test," added team manager Makoto Tanaka. "Nicky is still in a similar situation to the last time we were testing here in February so we need to improve the set-up on his bike in order that he feels more comfortable and able to attack."
Hayden's team-mate Dani Pedrosa was able to methodically work up to pace at the exposed and sandy desert circuit. The 21-year-old Spaniard topped the timesheets at the test here three weeks ago and today displayed his trademark step-by-step improvements, finishing the day with a best lap time of 1min 56.990s, leaving him in sixth position and 0.526s behind fastest man Valentino Rossi.
"Well the season has begun and we're working hard again!" began Dani. "Today we made some progress and were able to achieve a fairly fast lap time, though we need to make further improvements with the set-up of the bike because we are a little bit behind the leaders. It's still too early to decide how the new tyre regulations will affect us in the race and we have to work hard with Michelin tonight and tomorrow to choose the best race tyre from the ones we have selected. This will be one of the major goals for tomorrow. The condition of the track seems to be improving and we expect it to become a little cleaner still."
"Dani was fastest here at the February test and he did a very good long run then. He's using a modified tyre from then and the results today were not conclusive," revealed Tanaka. "Anyway, we have many things to work on tonight ahead of the practice session and qualifying tomorrow." Crash.net | |
|
andie
i can't keep crashing, can i?
Number of posts : 478
Registration date : 2007-02-04
| | Subject: Re: 'Horrible start for Hayden.' Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:34 am | |
| wow, 15th for the reigning champ...that's pretty bad. | |
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