Ducati rider Nicky Hayden manages 7th position for Motorland Aragon GP starting grid – MotoGP news
Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden worked hard to get the seventh seat for the 14th MotoGP event, Motorland Aragon GP.
Meanwhile, his teammate Valentino Rossi qualified for the 13th position on the grid but a crash ruined his day.
Hayden said, “It’s good that seventh equals my best qualifying result this year, but truthfully, I thought I had a chance at the second row today, and I think the bike was capable of that too. I didn’t get it done, but I’m still lucky to be where I am.”
Hayden is satisfied because a delay of a fraction of a second could have dropped him far down on the grid. The Kentucky Kid is facing issue with the grip levels of his bike. The tyre shoulders are not up to the mark for providing ideal grip. He anticipates
that he might suffer through the tyre wear.
Though the race is a short one with only 23 laps but the tarmac is heavy on tyre wear. Hayden is also feeling awkward over the bumpy section of the track, but the team is working to minimise the onboard effect.
The Italian veteran was actually testing his newly built aluminium frame. A British frame company FTR has developed a chassis for the Ducati Desmosedici GP. The Aragon race weekend will be the debut for the modified GP11.1.
Rossi said, “I must say that we were a little unfortunate today, because I think we had good potential and that we deserved something better. Although the fall was quite ordinary, it hurt us, and then at the end, I made a little mistake with the second soft
tyre and ran wide.”
Following his crash, the error in laps cost him severe time loss on his effort. After running wide in a lap, he was totally off the track to rank high on the grid.
He was feeling better with the setup and claimed that it was not that tough to get a decent spot on the grid. After all the problems, he will be in the 13th position
to start the race at Motorland Aragon.
The addition to his problems is that he will be using the seventh engine on his GP11.1. According to the MotoGP engine regulations, only six engines are allowed to a team for the complete season.
Now with the new FTR aluminium chassis, the usual engine does not fit in the framework. In present situation, Rossi will be using the same engine he used at Misano which complements the frame. Due to violation of regulations, he will be starting the race
from pit lane with a ten-second delay from the race start.
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