Ducati Team duo Nicky Hayden, Valentino Rossi improves in QP at Sepang – MotoGP news
Ducati Team riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi have shown improvements during the qualifying practice session at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC).
The Ducati duo will participate at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
The Kentucky Kid took sixth place on the grid, while his teammate Rossi was able to secure ninth position for the Sunday’s race start.
Hayden said, “The mechanics all worked hard last night changing geometry and the transmission, and I’m thankful because the bike was immediately better. Qualifying didn’t start out great. The track felt a lot slipperier than this morning, but I put the soft
tyres in and was able to get down into the 2:02s.”
The Kentucky rider missed crashing for couple of times, while he was riding on soft tyres. With those tyres he was pushing his front on the track and hook up to his machine.
The sixth place for Hayden equals to his season’s best qualifying position, yet. He also reckoned that the bike was capable for doing a bit better, but the conditions were not proper.
Though the front pack of the riders was half-second faster as compared to his lap times, but he could have taken fourth position on the grid.
He also knows that the raceday at Sepang is one of the longest ones, but everyone is practicing to take the heat. Hayden hopes to have a good raceday at SIC.
The Italian teammate of Hayden was struggling to take hit for a second row start, but he managed to hang on in the third row. He also took a crash while taking a corner. However, he escaped with no injury and less damage to his bike.
Rossi stated, “Today went better. I was able to ride more effectively, although the fall was really a shame because it was the usual type, which means that we still have to solve that problem. In addition, that wasted some precious minutes, and I had to
use the second bike, which I didn’t like quite as much.”
He said that the team is pretty good on the most of the tracks, but here the turn for tends to lose some six of nine tenths from the front. Including the last two hairpins the bike is loses grip and time.
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