Hayden finishes 8th due to bad start; Stoner 4th

Sachsenring, Germany

On what could have been a potential podium finish for Nicky Hayden because of his best qualifying of the season, Nicky started on the grid 4th but dropped to 14th as he was left for dry in the first lap. Hayden also dropped 2 places in the championship to 13th as he was leaped the the Honda Gresini pair.

Meanwhile, a healthier-looking Casey Stoner finishes fourth. Casey was able to lead for a while at the beginning of the race, engaging in an exciting battle with rival Valentino Rossi, but slowly slipped down to fourth due to what looked like rear-tire problems.

Nicky Hayden

“Things were not as good as we had hoped after such a strong weekend and unfortunately we ended up in eighth place. Turn one was not good to me, I got in hot and then everyone was just there. I probably didn’t do the right thing in certain places and I blew all the hard work from qualifying.”

“I am disappointed in the result for sure, but the weekend as a whole we can take some positives from. I had another crash this morning because I got too excited having seen I could go a lot faster, after being towards the back all year. I apologised to the team for making some mistakes but I don’t apologise for trying so hard.”

Update – Casey’s thoughts

“At the beginning I thought I was going to be dropped pretty quickly because the bike didn’t feel too good in the first couple of laps. So I decided to hit the front as soon as I could, if nothing else to just try and hold everybody else up and try to stay in there with a shout. Then I started to lose the front end a few too many times so after the Laguna Seca qualifying crash and a few front end losses this weekend I thought it was better to play it safe and just bring it home.”

“Jorge and Valentino came past and then the front started to feel better, with a lighter fuel load so I started to push a bit harder, started to catch them and then I made a mistake. Then Dani had one unbelievable lap where he went half a second quicker than any of his other laps just about and then he came past me. I then started struggling on the left hand side of the tyre and lost the rear slightly at the bottom of the hill, but I was lucky enough to pull it up before I hit the gravel trap.”

“I was pretty happy with the race to be honest, considering the way things have been going lately. It’s the first time I feel like I have actually been involved in something for a while and if I hadn’t made that problem with the rear I might have been able to dig deep enough to catch Valentino and Jorge.”

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