After a frustrating time in Qatar, Nicky Hayden is looking forward to getting back up front in the
MotoGP fight when the series returns to Europe, at Jerez, next weekend.
Buoyed by his most recent appearance at the Spanish circuit, where he topped last-month's pre-season test with a stunning 1min 38.848secs lap, the American will run the 2008 RC212V with a revised chassis, and hopes that he can give the sport's most vocal audience the result it has come to expect from the Repsol Honda team.
The operation has a rich history of success at Jerez, with six wins recorded by Mick Doohan, Alex Crivillé and Valentino Rossi (2002 and 2003) up to 2003, while Hayden's current team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, qualified on pole position and finished the 2007 race a close second.
Hayden claimed a Spanish GP podium finish in 2006, his title-wining year, and hopes to bounce back from a 'determined' tenth place finish in Qatar with a return to the top three. Like his team-mate, Hayden loves the Spanish GP because it's one of the most atmospheric races on the MotoGP calendar, with a noisy and knowledgeable crowd guaranteed.
"The atmosphere is pretty cool," he confirmed, "You come into the stadium section [the Nieto and Peluqui turns] on Sunday morning and it's wild. Nowadays, you can design a racetrack on the computer, you can do whatever you want – make that, generate this, design that, use every trick in the book - but, if the place don't have that atmosphere, money can't buy that. Even if a racetrack gives tickets away, you can't guarantee the atmosphere you get at Jerez. There's explosions going off, it's just wild and that's what makes it so good."
crash.net
MotoGP fight when the series returns to Europe, at Jerez, next weekend.
Buoyed by his most recent appearance at the Spanish circuit, where he topped last-month's pre-season test with a stunning 1min 38.848secs lap, the American will run the 2008 RC212V with a revised chassis, and hopes that he can give the sport's most vocal audience the result it has come to expect from the Repsol Honda team.
The operation has a rich history of success at Jerez, with six wins recorded by Mick Doohan, Alex Crivillé and Valentino Rossi (2002 and 2003) up to 2003, while Hayden's current team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, qualified on pole position and finished the 2007 race a close second.
Hayden claimed a Spanish GP podium finish in 2006, his title-wining year, and hopes to bounce back from a 'determined' tenth place finish in Qatar with a return to the top three. Like his team-mate, Hayden loves the Spanish GP because it's one of the most atmospheric races on the MotoGP calendar, with a noisy and knowledgeable crowd guaranteed.
"The atmosphere is pretty cool," he confirmed, "You come into the stadium section [the Nieto and Peluqui turns] on Sunday morning and it's wild. Nowadays, you can design a racetrack on the computer, you can do whatever you want – make that, generate this, design that, use every trick in the book - but, if the place don't have that atmosphere, money can't buy that. Even if a racetrack gives tickets away, you can't guarantee the atmosphere you get at Jerez. There's explosions going off, it's just wild and that's what makes it so good."
crash.net