Brno MotoGP Reaction: Hayden back on podium in Brno

Reigning world champion Nicky Hayden scored his third podium in the last four races as his revival continued in Brno this afternoon.

The American claimed his 23rd career podium in a largely uneventful 22-lap race as he finished top Honda and top Michelin rider.

The 26-year-old though had no answer for the blistering pace of Bridgestone rivals Casey Stoner and John Hopkins, who were well clear of Hayden.

The Repsol Honda rider though beat his team-mate Dani Pedrosa into fourth having disposed of the Spaniard on only the second lap.

From that point though Hayden had a lonely ride to the rostrum and he said: “Take out of the result at Laguna, we’ve had some good results. This weekend we’ve been quietly running pretty close. We didn’t really put in an outright good lap or two to really get anybody’s attention but we quietly did a pretty good job. Yesterday afternoon we made quite a big change of the front forks and I liked it a lot and was able to dip down into the 58s. Today I got into third and thought ‘alright man, you got to go right here and get on their back wheel’. For about three corners I thought it was looking pretty and then got to a straight and looked up and realised I was just dreaming. I just kept my pace and I really feel like I got about as much out of the bike, tyres and the rider as I could. I don’t feel like I left much on the table and hopefully we can keep this form, get a little bit stronger, keep rolling and get ready for next year.”

The MotoGP field will undertake a two-day test in Brno on Monday and Tuesday, and Hayden said it was probably more important for him than his two Bridgestone rivals.
With Michelin again beaten comfortably by Bridgestone, the French factory has shipped in a batch of new rubber to try and mount a late season retaliation.

Hayden said: “We got a lot of stuff to try. Michelin has got tyres that we didn’t really want to gamble too much in our allocation and we got some new parts from Honda that we tried on Friday but didn’t really have any luck with them. We’ll get them back out for tomorrow and really try to evaluate stuff a little bit more to try and bridge that gap. Finishing 13 seconds off the leader, that’s a lot to find.”