Marlboro Ducati rider Nicky Hayden enjoyed a great run at Qatar, one that culminated with fourth place. Hayden talked informally to the media after the race and sounded off on several subjects.
On fourth place:
It would've been nice to at least been up on that podium tonight, but we'll take it. It's Round One. We'll take it and try to build on it.
Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso passed him in the final moments of the race, extracting him from the Qatar podium. Was he surprised when the Honda went past?
No. I know Dovi. He's going to go until the end, so. I wasn't sure I was going to stay on line when I did pass him. I was in pretty hot, and thought he might come back there. And I really expected him to come back, because once I got off-line for that first right-hander, the next two rights and that next left are all connected, so I kind of was off-line for the first one, so I expected him anywhere. But then in the last corner, once he ...
I'd struggled all weekend. I could not get off the last corner. Just something we - that was my worst place, even, like I said, in practice and qualifying. Something didn't feel right with the electronic traction control. The balance would be spinning on the edge, and when I would pick it up on the big part of the tire and it would hook up, the engine would go flat right as I was going uphill, and would just kill my drive. So once I got in there, I just focused on trying to get a really good drive, but he got a lot better drive than me.
Did the speed of the Andrea Dovizioso's Honda surprise you?
No, I was behind de Puniet a little bit this morning. Honda didn't seem real fast on top down there at the end, but it comes off the corner good. Especially there, second, third, fourth, comes off the corner good.
Rossi ran out of fuel on the cool-off lap and several other riders were on fumes. Was the fact that MotoGP bikes were going to be tight on fuel a surprise?
Pffft. Every race, any more, for me ... You know, I've improved that this year. I've worked a lot in the wind tunnel and some different things to get my fuel consumption better, where I didn't have to lean it out so much on race day, and change the gearing. I mean, really, since we've went to 800s when I was at Honda, it's a matter of always fuel consumption. If you've got more fuel, you can go faster. Both on corner entry, with traction control, corner exit. So it's always an issue. But we expected to finish, sure.
How frustrating was it coming out of the last corner in third, kind of knowing that Dovi was probably going to come past?
Yeah, it was tough, man. Especially our box here's right under the podium, and trying to talk to my team, and hearing them up there cheering. At the time, I was pretty - really bummed. It would've been nice. I felt like we deserved it. The team did everything. I felt like I rode hard enough to be there. But sometimes it ain't enough. So it frustrates me, but sure, once I got back to the box and cooled down a little bit, and started to think, "Well, it ain't so bad. Let's try to be positive here and move on."
Regardless, a good start to the season at a track that Hayden hasn't been strong at recently.
My feeling felt good. It's like I said. It's weird sometimes, this bike. We can make big changes, you know, change the swingarm, offset, and not get nothing out of it. But for the race, we made a couple small changes to the rear to get some better grip. I mean small stuff, stuff you do for the race, and on the warm-up lap I thought, "Wow, this thing feels pretty good." It had better grip, and actually allowed to load the front better. It felt awesome.
But this is really, it's just one race. We'll forget about this one quick. We can't get too caught up on one race. Yeah, it was good, some decent points and a fun race, but we need to just get back focused and we've got 17 more rounds to do something. So this ain't ... get too excited here tonight. It's just one race. But it is something to be - try to build on, because the last couple years I've really started the season slow, and just added more pressure. And there's a couple tracks at the beginning of the season ...
...this place has been hard on me since we went to 800. I've never really went good here the last couple years. I started the first couple of rounds, I know, aren't ever easy. A few tracks I struggle at. But hey, we'll enjoy this one. It's been a while since I was up near the front, and I enjoyed it. I ain't going to lie. It's fun.
ENDS
