Hayden hoping to run pneumatic valve engine at Donington

The Honda decision over whether to use the pneumatic valve RC212V engine is a `will they/won´t they´ saga worthy of a British soap opera, and post-race testing in Catalunya provided a further cliffhanger ahead of this weekend´s visit to Donington Park.

Even Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden is going to be kept guessing, with his team choosing their Donington direction at the last minute having assessed data from the 2006 World Champion´s testing runs.

`I´m quite excited about Donington. I hope I´ll be able to use the pneumatic valve engine but we´ll see what the decision is, we´ll go with what the team says,´ notes Hayden, whose teammate Dani Pedrosa will definitely be continuing with the standard spring valve version of the motor.

Hayden continued, `Going into a race weekend with new parts is never easy, so if we use the engine we´ll just try to learn as the weekend goes on and get it dialled in. The weather can be a big issue at Donington – it can do anything. The track itself is almost like two tracks. The first bit is awesome – you´ve got to be brave through Craner, you need some guts, because it´s pretty exciting down through there. I quite like it if the bike is working good.´

`The last bit of the track is a lot of hard braking. No matter how good you hit the first part of the track, if you can´t get through the two little hairpins at the end of the lap it kills your lap times,´ said the American. `The two sections are completely different so it's a compromise with the set-up. What works through the first part can be a bit different to what works through the last part, so it's not an easy track for the suspension guys and the chassis guys.´

Hayden, with whichever version of the Honda RC212V that is selected for the task at hand, will be on track from Friday morning for the opening practice sessions of the bwin.com British Grand Prix.