WorldSBK: Hayden Fifth After Race One At Donington
Gordon Ritchie | May 28, 2016
After winning the second race at Sepang, in the wet, Nicky Hayden had to qualify out of Superpole 1 and into Superpole 2 in England, starting Saturday’s opening WorldSBK race at Donington from seventh place on the grid.
He battled to fourth then got involved in a fight with two other riders, and he would eventually finish fifth.
“I pushed a lot and you know I had caught Savadori and afterwards I made one little mistake and Leon got me and then we fought Savadori – and it was just a race then,” said Hayden, who finished behind the MV of Leon Camier but ahead of the Aprilia of Lorenzo Savadori. “I was quite weak in one area of braking and they were much stronger than me.”
Hayden was deflated for a time after not finishing higher up the order.
“I must say after winning in Malaysia a top five feels like a disaster!” he confirmed. “But compared to where we were yesterday the team really made a good job last night to make a couple of small changes. Truthfully my base through the race was not incredibly fast at the beginning but constant all the way. I was a little bit frustrated because in Superpole 1 I made a couple of good laps with a race tyre and thought I could do that today but we missed a little bit.”
Savadori tried an ambitious overtake on Hayden near the end, into the downhill Melbourne Loop hairpin, which Hayden anticipated. “I did not see how far he came back from but I just heard him coming… and I picked it up. I do not know how far he came from but that is such a tough corner because it is downhill. You just brake a little bit too much and it is not my strong point – and they were smart enough to see that.”
Hayden was in the unusual position of not being the only American rider in WorldSBK this weekend, as MotoAmerica rider Cameron Beaubier was also at Donington. When asked about how he saw his countryman at Donington Hayden said, “A lot of people ask me about Cameron – what I think of him, what he is going to do – and I really don’t know because I have never actually ridden with him. But I certainly believe he has got some talent from what I have seen. I follow MotoAmerica quite closely and he has done a lot of winning there in the last couple of years. I have no doubt he has the talent and he proved on Friday he has good speed. I have enough going on with my own work this weekend but I think it is great to give a kid a chance and see what he can do.”