Hayden nervous and hoping for heat

Pulling out a front row position with a single late run at Laguna Seca, home rider Nicky Hayden is hopeful of a first rostrum of the year at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The Repsol Honda rider is hoping for hotter conditions to favour the batch of tyres brought to the track by Michelin, but is less than optimistic about turning the heat up on poleman Casey Stoner.

Nicky Hayden – Third

`Qualifying was difficult, there were many guys crashing. Qualifying is so important here because it´s so hard to pass, so some guys are willing to pay a big price for a good grid position. Our race pace isn´t exactly blazing but it´s really nice to be on the front row in front of the home crowd, the support is awesome. I know tomorrow´s going to be really tough, Casey [Stoner] is on fire right now and we´re having a few little issues, but the team´s done a good job and I feel like we deserve a good result. Hoping won´t get it though, so we´ll come in here tomorrow, ride hard and see if we can´t pull something out. I´m a little bit nervous. Truth is, the tyres we've got in our allocation are a little out of the range, so the warmer the better for us. We changed the bike a little bit to make the tyres work more and the qualifying tyres were awesome. Actually I felt like I maybe left a couple of tenths in them but I was running about as hard as I could. Hopefully we can put on a good show tomorrow and not less this guy disappear. A podium would be great, but to try to fight with Casey would be a long shot. We never give up, anything can happen when we line up, so we´ll come in here, try to have fun, try my hardest and I know I´ll have plenty of support. I´m looking forward to it.´