Nicky Hayden saves a complicated situation with a fifth place

Traffic on the pit lane clearly hindered Pedrosa. © Repsol Media Service. All teams were looking at the weather before the start of the race in the premier class, and all eyes were fixed on the sky of Phillip Island. The black clouds getting closer to the Australian track did not predict good news and so it was. The start was delayed a few minutes due to the first drops and the race was declared as “wet race”.

After the definitive start and only a few laps, the riders had to enter the pit lane to change their bikes because all of them had decided to start with slick tyres. This has been the first time this special situation was experienced in a MotoGP race and the truth is that some riders were benefited, such as Nicky Hayden who moved up from the sixteenth position he had after the first lap to tenths on lap seven. Other had however worse luck, such as Dani Pedrosa, who after a superb start was fifth in the first lap but dropped to thirteenth after the bike change.

The large traffic on the pit lane while the riders were changing their bikes, the crowd of people and Tamadas bike in front of Dani's, clearly hindered Pedrosa. Finally Dani had to settle for the fifteenth position with a completely worn-out rear soft rain tyre. The current World Championship leader Nicky Hayden crossed the finish line in fifth position, handing over just five points to Valentino Rossi, who finished third today ad moved up to second in the overall standings. After this Grand Prix, and with 75 points still at stake until the end of the 2006 World Championship, Hayden has an advantage of 21 points over Rossi, who is second, and 32 over Melandri and Pedrosa, who are on third and fourth position with the same amount of points in the overall standings.

Listen to Nicky Hayden.

Nicky Hayden: “What a wild race. I had some problems getting off the line, which is clear, and in the first few laps it was just wet and it felt pretty sketch to me. I was using quite a hard tyre and I was just getting eaten up and losing positions at the beginning. Then it started to rain, we came in and switched bikes and it was actually really good fun – I enjoyed it. When it was really raining it felt pretty good and I was charging hard and getting past quite a few guys but as it dried out I struggled a bit in the half-wet half-dry conditions. I got Rossi, he got me back and we were catching some guys in front of us. It was looking ok until he got Sete in between us which was not great, but we're still holding on with three races to go and we'll just roll into Motegi and keep fighting.”

Dani Pedrosa: “We were ready for the dry race and I was able to run near the front in the early laps. Everybody was careful for the first few laps because it was raining and the tyres were cold – except Nakano – right from the start he was already gone. After the weather changed and it started raining I more or less kept the rhythm of the riders in front. But when we came into the pit-lane to change bikes the pit-lane was full and there were plenty of people who didn't need to be there and I can't really understand why. I lost some time and after I changed bikes many of the riders who were behind me before were in front. The tyre choice for the second part of the race was too soft and after two laps it was destroyed so it was impossible for me to maintain the pace. The result is obviously not good in terms of points but Motegi is a track I like so I hope to have a better race there.”
(Repsol Media Service)

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