It was a pretty honest race for the Ducati factory team, nothing more or less that we expected from Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi at Laguna Seca, considering their ongoing struggles with the GP11 and GP11.
1, but when the Brno GP rolls around next month.
Ducati is again bringing in more stuff for the two to test, to try to help them reach the pointy end (rumors of another chassis in the works have surfaced), even if it’s late in the season.
If anyone was wondering what happened in the Ducati garage post race, when Rossi was trying to give his team mate a hug and Hayden ended up shaking his head, apparently The Kentucky Kid told his team mate that he could have backed off a little since it was his home race, with The Doctor replying that next time they’ll agree on it beforehand.
Hayden was asked the same question on his Twitter page and he replied, “Nothing we was joking bout at Indy he gotta let me thru.
”Valentino Rossi said, “We worked well this weekend.
We started from a better position than we have in recent races, and I got a good launch on the start and tried to stay with the leaders.
I did a lap in the mid-’22s, but then I closed the front twice in a row on the bumps in Turn 5 and nearly crashed.
I still had a tough race after that, because Nicky stayed glued to me and didn’t give me a chance to breathe.
We obviously don’t want to be fighting for sixth place, but we’re having some problems at the moment and we have to try and do our best with what we have.
We’re losing too much on corner entry, where I’m very slow because I don’t have enough feeling, but Ducati is working and we must stay focused and positive, making progress step by step.
In the short term, we have to make up those missing tenths in order to stay with the group with Spies, Sic and Dovizioso.
Then we’ll think about the others.
”“I’ve won this race before, so I’m not going to jump up and down celebrating seventh place”, said Hayden.
“We knew it was going to be tough, and crashing in qualifying didn’t help.
I got a decent start, but I didn’t get to go with that second group like I had hoped.
It was kind of like the Sachsenring: a good battle with Valentino, but thirty seconds behind the front.
Vale was no faster than me, but he’s a racer: he doesn’t make mistakes and give you anything.
A couple of times I thought I might be able to go up the inside, but I’m not just going to close my eyes and knock us both down trying for sixth place.
People who think he’s not trying are crazy.
I saw his right foot come off the peg a couple of times when he almost went down.
We’ll take two weeks off, regroup and go to Brno.
Now is no time to be negative.
I believe in my team and Ducati, and I really think we’re still going to have a good season.
”
