Monday, 13 June 2011
Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi finished the AirAsia British Grand Prix race fourth and sixth, respectively, with the Italian limiting damage in a challenging weekend, while the American posted the fastest lap of the race and finished just off the podium.
With the help of his team, Nicky Hayden found a good setup for the wet race, the only deterrent causing him to lose contact with the battle for the podium were the particularly treacherous conditions of the early laps, when he came close to crashing his GP11 on a couple of occasions.
Despite starting from the last row and not being completely comfortable with his bike’s setup, Valentino Rossi made up several positions and rode a controlled race, collecting ten precious points to retain fourth place in the series standings.
Nicky Hayden:
“To be honest, I really liked my chances for a podium in the rain today; if you’d have told me before the race that I could have fourth, I’d have said, ‘No thanks, I can do better,’ but I’m not disappointed with my ride. I didn’t get a great start because the clutch was jumpy, and for the first few laps, it was hard to see and to get heat in the tyres. I had a big moment on the exit of Turn 1 and actually jarred my shoulder pretty good, but I tried to hang in there. I saw Colin in front of me for the podium, and I really pushed. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever had the fastest lap on a Ducati, which is kind of cool even if you don’t get points for it. Full respect to Colin a week after breaking his collarbone, but I still don’t like him beating me for the podium! Thanks to the team. It hasn’t been an easy weekend for us, but we kept trying and got a pretty good chunk of points. We’ll take it and move on.”
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