Nicky Hayden crossed the line in fifth at the end of the 23-lap, opening race of the UK round, which is currently underway at Donington Park. In what was another sunny day in central England, his Honda WorldSBK teammate Michael van der Mark claimed an eighth place finish after a good comeback from twelfth position on the grid.
Hayden did not get the perfect launch from his seventh place in qualifying and was caught up in a three-way battle for sixth place, while in the meantime the front-runners were already pulling away. During lap six, the experienced American rider make a successful pass on Torres for seventh place at Coppice 1, before being promoted to sixth as Davies crashed at ‘Goddards’. Despite overtaking Camier during the tenth lap, Nicky had the Briton on his tail until the final stages of the race: he eventually lost fourth place on the penultimate lap but was able to hold on to fifth up to the chequered flag.
Michael van der Mark had a challenging first part of the encounter due to his poor grid position. Starting from twelfth place, the young Dutchman was able to put together a solid race and, as the race entered its final third, he was one of the quickest riders on track. He eventually bridged the gap with the group ahead, although he could not get past Torres and had to settle for eighth.
The second and final race of the UK Round will get underway tomorrow at 3pm, after the 15-minute warm up scheduled at 9:50 (GMT+1).
Nicky Hayden 69
5th
A top 5 finish is always a solid result, surely not a disaster, although after tasting a little bit of victory in Malaysia it feels a bit empty for sure. I have to thank the team because they worked really well; last night we took our time, went through everything and straight away this morning the bike was better. I was able to make it through Superpole 1 and get a decent starting position, but unfortunately I couldn’t get a good getaway. I had some inconsistency at the start and we need to understand why. Overall the bike was working well; I would have liked to be a little bit quicker but I got great positives out of the new tyre we used for the first time today; my pace was very consistent throughout the whole race, so thanks to Pirelli for that.
Michael van der Mark 60
8th
This morning we tried something on the bike which didn’t work out and in Superpole the feeling was just not there, so unfortunately I couldn’t do better than twelfth. In the race, after a good start I had a small electronics issue in the early stages that cost me some time and a couple of places, too. I was able to get up to speed again and make up some places, but in the end I couldn’t attack the rider in front of me and had to settle for eighth place. The main goal for tomorrow is to find some more grip with the new tyres; if we can manage to do that, then our second race can be much better.
Pieter Breddels
Technical Manager
This morning we tried with Nicky a new linkage that was designed especially for low-grip conditions and it worked out well. That helped Nicky advancing to Superpole 2 and getting a third row start for the race. We knew it was going to be difficult and we weren’t wrong; the front-runners pulled away immediately and he got caught up in battle for fourth. Michael was able to join that group in the final laps despite a small problem in the early stages and, just like Nicky, he had a great pace in the second half of the race, which is very encouraging for us. Now we need to review the data and come up with some more changes. If we can improve out pace a little bit more and get a good start, we’ll be in the right conditions to do well