American Nicky Hayden (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) takes the positives away from a tough race in the opening round of the season at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, despite finishing in 11thposition.
Continuing to learn and understand the new Honda CBR 1000RR Fireblade SP2, Hayden was able to fight in the mid-pack throughout the race after starting from 11th position on the grid. Admitting he still has a lot of work to do, he is keen to continue to find solutions and work through their problems. The former MotoGP World Champion takes away five points from the opening race of the season, and will hope to improve on his pace in Sunday’s race two.
Starting from 12th position on the grid, Hayden reviews his race: “I was struggling a bit with edge grip, and I’m sure the track was a bit hotter today, but Phillip Island is a demanding circuit and Pirelli have done a great job with the tires.”
“But I made a good start and I thought early on that maybe I could try and hang in there. But I did the best that I could and I don’t want to rattle off a load of excuses.”
“In the first race of the year you dream and hope of something different than getting beat like that, but that’s the reality so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.” He added
“We want to try and get the bike a bit more consistent so we’re more confident and stop doing strange things around the track. I need to get off the last corner better, because in the race I was getting really hammered on the front straight which really makes it tough.”
“I wasn’t fast enough to really get it back in faster parts of the track, so we’ve got plenty of work to do tomorrow but we’ll certainly try and take a step forward tomorrow.”
Watch Hayden and the rest of the 21 WorldSBK riders take on the second race of the season, with the new grid rules in place at 15.00LT (+11 GMT) on Sunday from the captivating Phillip Island.