Sepang test: Nicky Hayden facing ‘long flight home’

Nicky Hayden admitted facing a long flight home to Kentucky after he finished the Sepang test down in 10th place and only third best Ducati GP9.

Easily outpaced by a stunning performance from factory Ducati team-mate Casey Stoner, the 2006 world champion was also beaten by just 0.111s by rookie Mika Kallio.

Hayden set a best time of 2.02.497 as his 62-lap stint was longer than any of his rivals on a swelteringly hot final day.

That left him 1.454s adrift of Stoner and his tough week was compounded by an innocuous front-end crash at the second corner this afternoon.

The former factory Honda rider, who also completed a full race distance run today, said: “I can’t say it was a spectacular day at all and to be honest it is going to be a long flight home.

“I have sure got plenty to be thinking about, “said the American, who managed to shave off 1.6s over the three days, though he was never higher than ninth in the rankings.

“I’m having a lot of trouble with the pumping from the rear and just how unpredictable it is.

“And during my long run it was pretty bad once the tyre had dropped off a little bit, although the Bridgestone did stay really consistent throughout which I was impressed with,“ said Hayden, who like Valentino Rossi and Chris Vermeulen, took a slow speed tumble at the left-hand turn two.

Hayden blamed a patch of black tarmac used to resurface a small section of track and he said: “I ran right over it and I went down.

“I’d been cutting inside it all week but I just ran a little bit wide and I lost the front. I wasn’t hurt but they’ve done a bad job of resurfacing the track and it has caught a few riders out this week.”

Hayden said he was by no means satisfied with his times, but he was encouraged by the impressive pace of Stoner to show the GP9 was capable of going much quicker.

He added: “The fact Casey is already so fast means that the bike has the potential – it can only be a good thing that he is going so quick.

“The team is working hard and they are just as determined as I am to get the results, so that’s a good thing.

“I wasn’t too bad in the first two sectors but I was losing too much in T3 and T4, where the problem I’m having with the bike being unstable and unpredictable on the exit was the worst.”