Mugello MotoGP: Nicky Hayden looks for less bumpy ride

American Nicky Hayden struggled to overcome Mugello’s notoriously bumpy surface today as he ended opening MotoGP practice in a lowly ninth place.

Hayden has enjoyed a brilliant start to the 2010 campaign with fourth places in each of the opening three races.   

But his hopes of a positive start to Ducati’s all-important home race were dashed with the 2006 world champion ending with a best time 1.51.387.

That left the Kentucky rider a massive 1.636s adrift of Valentino Rossi and he said: “It wasn’t that good and I was certainly hoping to be a little bit smoother out of the gate but we had a lot of problems over the bumps.

“This track is quite bumpy and the bike was not soaking up the bumps, especially in the front. I had to change my lines a bit to miss the bumps but here you have really got to be on point and I wasn’t.”

Hayden denied though that his problems were so severe to see him contemplate reverting back to last year’s Ohlins front forks like team-mate Casey has opted to do for this weekend’s Italian MotoGP.

The former Repsol Honda rider added: “I’m not that desperate yet. I haven’t heard Casey’s comments so I don’t know if he got chance to back-to-back them but I’m going to work with some springs and clickers before I start changing forks.”

The issue with the front-end prevented Hayden from evaluating a new rear link Ducati delivered in time for today’s practice.

He said: “I stayed on one bike so I didn’t try the link. The problems I was having we didn’t think the link was going to help. I’m anxious to try it and they’ve worked hard to get it here. They don’t help front chatter but it’s more for rear grip and change of direction.”

One boost for Hayden on otherwise relatively disappointing day was his impressive top speed.

He’s always struggled to get close to the top of the speed charts and at times has been as far back as 10ks on team-mate Stoner.

But Hayden’s GP10 was second quickest this afternoon with a top speed of 209.21mph.

Only Hector Barbera’s Ducati was faster and Hayden confirmed he’s switched back to a smaller fairing used prior to last year’s Estoril GP in Portugal.

He said: “I think it’s the braking zone here but my bike is really stable over that little crest. Normally you have to roll out of it or give it a little rear brake but I’m pretty much on the stop.

“I am using the 2009 fairing that we used before Estoril and it is better for top speed. I’m quite happy about it because I’ve worked hard on the aerodynamic side of it.”

Ducati revealed Hayden spent 20 hours in a wind tunnel in Italy in December to aid his top speed.