The weekend’s last rain shower fell less
than an hour before the Spanish Grand Prix, leaving time for the water
to evaporate enough to have the race declared dry, so the MotoGP riders
started on slick tyres. Nicky Hayden, who started from the first row,
was involved in a back-and-forth battle for third place with Crutchlow
and Pedrosa. The American then steadily lost ground as grip decreased,
eventually finishing eighth. Valentino Rossi, who started from the fifth
row, steadily improved his pace as he climbed to eighth place.
Both riders will continue working on the setup of the GP12, starting
this Friday when they again take to the track for free practice at the
Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril, and also during the post-race test on
Monday.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 8th
“It was fun for a couple of laps. We know our bike is great at
generating heat in the tyres, and for the first few laps, I was able do
what I wanted. Then about the time it looked like the other guys’ tyres
came up to temperature, mine had already started losing grip, especially
in the front. I was pushing wide in places and guys started coming past
me. We knew it would be tough in the dry. My setup was okay, but to
really try to go with those guys wasn’t possible. I was able to close
back down on Bradl at the end and have a bit of a race the last couple
of laps, but he beat me. Eighth place is certainly not what our goal is.
The bike’s got a lot of potential, but at the moment, the gap to the
rest is still too far. Hopefully we can get a dry weekend in Estoril and
try to be closer to the front on Sunday.”
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 9th
“The positive thing from today’s race is that I think it might help
us to do a bit better in the coming events, starting next week in
Portugal. Today we used a setup that’s new for us, and it gave some
positive signs. First we tried some solutions to give me a feeling
similar to what I’ve had in the past, but it doesn’t work. Today’s
setting was very similar to what Nicky has used for a while, though not
exactly the same. I must get used to riding the bike a bit differently
than I’m used to, and today that caused me to lose some ground in the
early laps because I was basically starting blind. I wasn’t going bad
once I found my rhythm, in the sense that I was matching the times of
those who were fighting for sixth place, and I was able to push until
the end, doing a 1:41.0 on the penultimate lap. This helps me to be a
little more optimistic as I look ahead to the next races because if I’m
able to ride a bit better, it could be a place for us to start from. In
fact, we’ll use this setting when we start on Friday. Naturally, we’ll
have to keep working, be more effective in qualifying so that we can
start further forward, and improve acceleration and a number of other
things, which we’ve already discussed at Ducati as we try, together, to
improve the GP12.”
Vittoriano Guareschi (Team Manager)
“Today we wanted to see both Nicky and Vale finish the race closer to
the front, but overall, there are several positive things to take from
this weekend as we continue our work and our development path for the
GP12. We received confirmation that we’re very fast in the wet, and in
the dry, we had a good qualifying session with Nicky, who made the first
row. Nicky was very competitive in the early laps of the race, and now
we must also improve over race distance with him. Vale found qualifying
difficult, but in the race, using a setting that he’d never tried, he
felt okay and was steadily gaining confidence and going faster. These
are signs that show us the direction to follow starting with the next
round in a few days in Portugal.”
