Scott Redding happy to close gap to Nicky Hayden

Scott Redding was satisfied with his performance on the opening night of MotoGP testing in Qatar after the Gresini rider finished within 0.4s of Nicky Hayden on the new production Honda RCV1000R machine.

The 21-year-old was 10th fastest under the Losail International Circuit floodlights and a personal best time of 1.58.503 that was only 0.348s behind 2006 world champion Hayden.

The Gloucestershire rider told MCN: “Coming here after Sepang the bike felt really good handling wise after there wasn’t a lot of grip in Malaysia. Nicky dropped his lap time but I managed to close it down and I am happy to be as close as I am. But once again I seemed to have reached my limit and I need to try and find some more front edge grip. I kept closing the front and I don’t know if it was because the temperature was dropping too much or I was pushing too hard. But each time I tried to go a bit faster I keep losing the front and I definitely need more front edge grip to go faster.”