German MotoGP: Nicky Hayden and Carlos Checa have lucky escapes

Reigning MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden reckons he came close to slamming into Carlos Checa as the Spaniard ran across the track following a crash in today’s Sachsenring final qualifying session. 

Carlos Checa crashed his LCR Honda RC212V with eight minutes of the session remaining at the final corner. But as he sprinted back across the track to get back to the pits to complete the session on his spare machine, he was nearly hit by a hard-charging Nicky Hayden.

The American was on a flying lap using the first of his two Michelin soft qualifying tyres and the 25-year-old said: “My qualifying laps were not good at all. My first one was going OK and then in the last corner Checa was running across the track in front of me and I had to slow down or hit him.

“I mean, that’s no exaggeration. He was on his feet and I probably would have done the same thing if it was qualifying and I needed to get to my second bike, but I’d have looked first. It was pretty brave.”

In a separate incident in this morning’s second 250 free practice session where two riders did collide in less than accidental circumstances, Race Direction hit both Hector Barbera and Marco Simoncelli with fines of 2000 US dollars.

An FIM statement said ‘Hector Barbera has nudged the Italian rider Marco Simoncelli at the pit lane entry, then Marco Simoncelli has kicked Hector Barbera in the pit lane.’

No protest was lodged against the fines.