Shoulder relief for Hayden

Reigning world champion Nicky Hayden battled a front-end grip problem with his new factory Honda RC212V to finish sixth fastest in Australia today. 

Hayden was frustrated and disappointed with his best time of 1.30.61 in a long 91-lap stint today, but some relief came with the American revealing his troublesome shoulder is getting stronger.

Hayden underwent surgery in November to repair a broken collarbone he picked up in Estoril when team-mate Dani Pedrosa crashed into him.

Talking of the shoulder he said: “It’s alright. It’s different at this track because there is not so much hard braking, so I thought it would be easier.”

“The collarbone feels a lot better because I’m not braking so hard, but in the actual shoulder where I had the fracture it actually feels a little bit worse because you are just pushing so much more.”

On his second day performance he said: “I got some pretty big worries with the front which I didn’t have in Malaysia.”

“We tried the new 16-inch front and the 16.5-inch front but we have the problem with both. We got some work to do tonight that’s for sure.”