German MotoGP: Nicky Hayden says thanks and sorry to Niccolo Canepa

Nicky Hayden apologised to rookie Niccolo Canepa after a bizarre incident during a rain-lashed Sachsenring MotoGP qualifying this afternoon. Pushing to try and claim his first Ducati front row start, the American high-sided his factory Ducati GP9 at the seventh corner while he was lying in fourth position. Flicked out of his seat and into the air, incredibly Hayden then slammed into the luckless Canepa’s body, the Pramac Ducati rider going down too. Both were sent hurtling through the gravel trap but both were cleared of any injury after checks in the circuit medical centre. Hayden, who ended the session fourth and is chasing a fifth podium at the Sachsenring, told MCN: “I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I hoped he’d seen me but I wasn’t sure. I know why I crashed. It was my own fault, rider error, but I was also thinking ‘hell, I hope he’s not going to come back down on the racing line because he was on a slow lap. Sometimes you wonder if people see you, so I was trying to get ahead of him. When I lost the rear and started going right, I just thought ‘I hope I don’t land in front of him.’ At about that time I felt him. He actually cushioned the fall for me. It’s a cruel world and I’m lucky I knocked him down or I could have got hurt worse. So I’m sorry but also grateful!” Hayden immediately apologised to Canepa in the gravel trap and he added: “He was cool. It happens. He wasn’t bad. We were in Costa’s together. Getting mad wasn’t going to help him.” The hit was cruel on Canepa, who had already crashed his GP9 earlier in a session run in atrocious conditions. The Italian said: “I didn’t understand what happened until I saw the replay while I was in the Clinica Mobile. When I was on the ground after the accident I heard Hayden saying to me ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry’, but I didn’t understand why. He doesn’t have to worry because this sort of thing can happen and the most important thing is that both of us are ok and ready to race tomorrow. I suffered a hard contusion to my back, head and ankle, but nothing is broken. I felt a lot of heat in my lower back but everything seems back to normal now. I want to thank the Clinica Mobile doctors who have helped me to relax and will do all possible to put me back in top form for tomorrow’s race,” he concluded. Today’s rain-lashed qualifying was easily Hayden’s best qualifying of 2009 and he told MCN: “It’s by far my best qualifying and I need to take advantage of it. I need a good start to try and get away from some of those guys around me. Somebody asked me what my strategy was tomorrow, but I don’t have one other than twisting the grip to stay with the guys as long as I can. It will be good to watch them and learn because this is my first chance to see them.” Turn 7 proved to be the downfall of several riders as torrential rain battered the Sachsenring. Randy de Puniet, Marco Melandri, Toni Elias, Loris Capirossi and Alex de Angelis all tumbled out at the fourth gear left-hander.

 

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