Big party for Nicky Hayden and the Repsol Honda Team in Laguna Seca.
Local hero takes an overwhelming victory in front of more than 57,000 fans.
Nicky Hayden joined today the exclusive list of riders capable of winning a MotoGP Grand Prix, but was also able to add his name to the very short list – only himself and Barros – of riders capable of taking a victory this season beating the irrefutable and current World Champion Valentino Rossi. With a perfect performance throughout the weekend of the US Grand Prix, Hayden achieved great success in Laguna Seca, leaving hardly any option to his rivals, in addition to braking a run of one year and a half with no victories of the Repsol Honda Team -Valentino Rossi, November 2003 Valencia Grand Prix -. Of the five practice sessions held – two on Friday, two on Saturday and the Sunday’s warm-up- Hayden was fastest in four of them, missing out only the first session on Friday where he was second.
In view of this, everybody took it for granted that the Kentucky-born Repsol rider was the firmest candidate for the victory.
True, but Hayden had to reaffirm the general opinion beating the rest of his rivals, something that would not be easy considering the quality of riders such as Rossi, Bayliss, Edwards, Biaggi and Hopkins, who had also shown that they had options to fight for a place on the podium along the weekend.But Hayden didn’t want to know anything about them during the race, so, starting from the leading position – first pole in his third season – he didn’t leave any options and after the first lap, he had already opened a gap of one second over his immediate follower, nobody else but Valentino Rossi. The gap didn’t change during a couple of laps, with Hayden focussed and riding at the limit and Rossi fighting in order not to let him go.
A few little mistakes of the Italian allowed Nicky to enlarge the gap, getting close to two seconds, lap after lap. From that moment, Nicky’s race was a race against himself, trying to keep concentration and avoiding any mistake until the chequered flag. Behind him, Rossi, with some tyre problems, was loosing terrain, while Colin Edwards, local rider as well and teammate to the Italian was slowly but steadily catching up with him.
Edwards had previously gotten rid of Max Biaggi, who after a good start was fighting in the following group together with Bayliss and Gibernau trying to get a place on the podium.Edwards finally managed to overtake Rossi, slightly increasing the pace to get Hayden, but the Repsol rider played his cards well and crossed the finish line with an advantage of more than two seconds, in front of 57,000 overjoyed fans, who went almost crazy with the victory of their hero.
Edwards was second with Rossi taking the third step of the podium. Max Biaggi, who had a nice duel with Gibernau for the fourth place, finally won over the Spaniard thus completing a successful weekend for the Repsol Honda Team.
Rider´s comments:
Nicky Hayden
1st, 45’15.374:
This is like a fairy tale. To come to your home GP and be fastest in nearly all the sessions and get pole and then win is just a dream come true. It s been a while since I won anything except the dating game TV thing and this feels amazing. For the race I put my head down and just rode my heart out the whole race. In the middle of the race I saw the time gap come down and I though oh no. but I kept focussed. Getting Earl on the back at the end is a real dirt track thing. I owe my family everything. My Mum and Dad have given up so much for us all as a family. I remember the roof leaking as a kid when it rained as all the money we had went into racing. This win is for everyone in my team for Honda in believing in me and for all the great fans round this track today who helped me so much . Every dog has its day and today it all just came together. Im going to enjoy this moment for sure.
Max Biaggi
4th, 45’19.590:
It was a good race. Surely, we could have stepped on the podium this time, but it took me too long to pass Bayliss, who was slowing me down. So I lost the touch with the head of the race. Im sorry, because I did a good start, from seventh to fourth place. I also liked the duel with Gibernau, tough but always fair. Well, I had fun. Today I really want to congratulate with my team mate Nicky and with his guys. He was simply perfect all over the week-end. Bravo Nicky!
Standings:
MotoGP
- N.Hayden (Honda) 45.15.374
- C.Edwards (Yamaha) 45.17.315
- V.Rossi (Yamaha) 45.17.686
- M.Biaggi (Honda) 45.19.590
- S.Gibernau (Honda) 45.19.852
World Championship
- V.Rossi, 186 puntos.
- M. Melandri, 107.
- M.Biaggi, 100.
- S.Gibernau, 95
- C.Edwards, 93
- N.Hayden, 85.
