Ducati and Stoner in Sepang MotoGP
U.S. Motorcycle Racers Hayden and Edwards Struggle in Malaysian Heat
The Ducati show rolled through Malaysia notching another MotoGP win for their young star on the way. The outgoing Champ Nicky Hayden's horror year continued.
Casey Stoner blasted his Ducati into the lead off the starting grid and quickly established a handy lead. Stoner’s mania challenge came from maintaining concentration in the heat, rather than any direct challenge from other riders.
“It was a very, very difficult race. The biggest battle I had was being out front by myself and not having anyone to focus on. I've been fine with it all year but this track seems to take it out of you a little bit more,” said Stoner.
The Kentucky Kid, last year’s World Champion Nicky Hayden, had another disappointing race. At the last race at Phillip Island, Hayden looked to be the only rider capable of challenging Stoner until once again his Honda let him down. In Sepang, Hayden got caught up in traffic at the start of the race ending up in ninth place at the finish.
“Unfortunately I didn't get a great start and on the first lap or two I got boxed in everywhere and I always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That cost me a lot of positions,” said Hayden.
In an effort to make up for the early troubles Hayden pushed too hard into a corner and had to make a slow trip through a gravel trap to rejoin the race.
“I think I had the fastest lap of the race for a while which is encouraging considering how things were going earlier this weekend. Our speed and rhythm was way better than 9th place today and that's encouraging, but it was rider error that cost us a better result today.” said Hayden.
Hayden did manage to make it past fellow American, Texan Colin Edwards who also suffered at the start on his Yamaha. Edwards also found trouble coping with the tropical heat.
“Towards the end I started to feel pretty light-headed - I was feeling the remnants of when I was sick earlier in the week - and everything was really a bit of a blur for the last few laps. I had a terrible headache and in this heat it's hard to concentrate if you're not at 100%, and unfortunately I couldn't hold Hayden off at the end,” said Edwards.
John Hopkins produced the best result for the American contingent with an eighth place finish.
“I got off the line pretty well and through turn one and then I made a few mistakes in the first few laps and even ran off the track at one time. From then on it was just a Rizla Suzuki battle with me and Chris going back-and-forth,” said Hopkins.
Meanwhile young rookie Kurtis Roberts is finding the sophisticated MotoGP machines can be difficult to set up for maximum performance, particularly the electronic rider aids.
“I started changing the traction control settings, and I found what worked. I took it all the way off, then I could turn the bike better, and it improved the lap time. This is my first year of riding with traction control. I've never liked it, but you can find a way to ride round the problems and maybe get rid of it, get the set-up better and maybe go faster. The fastest lap I did all weekend was with it off,” said Roberts.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
