Hayden positive and now focused on Laguna Seca

Nicky Hayden took the positives from a complicated Sunday at Sachsenring where he placed seventh, having battled for fifth place with Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli and coming close to a top-five finish.

“On paper seventh place doesn’t look like a great result but after qualifying 15th yesterday actually it’s not so bad. I was running fifth but with a few laps to go I lost the front coming through the Waterfall and went back to seventh, after which I couldn’t really get back to them. Also on the last lap the bike jumped out a gear and I almost crashed so I’m happy to have picked up points,” explained the Ducati rider.

“Of course fifth would have been a lot better but I’m proud of my team because yesterday (Saturday) was probably the worst day of our season so far but they worked so hard to change almost everything with the set-up, from the forks to the pivot and the shock. We tested it in the wet morning and it felt okay – I was fifth fastest and comfortable so we rolled the dice and went for it in the race.”

Hayden continued in his assessment: “At the start I was able to recover a lot of positions and got up to sixth when the red flag came out, which did me a favour because it closed the gap back up. I did not have the best feeling with the bike for a couple of laps, I was running wide in a lot of places and it was difficult. From there I got into a very aggressive race with Dovi and Simoncelli - I got rubber on both sides of my leathers but you expect that in MotoGP when you start 15th.”

Up next is a race Hayden has winning form at and one he will be aiming to delight the home crowd at as he prepares for the Red Bull US Grand Prix.

He added: “It was a good battle with those guys and overall this is a much more positive result than it looks ahead of my home race at Laguna.”