Catalunya MotoGP: Nicky Hayden secures first front row of 2008

American Nicky Hayden maybe disappointed at the on-going delay in him racing Honda’s pneumatic valve motor, but he shrugged his frustration aside today to claim his first front row start of the season.

The Repsol Honda rider will start from third on the grid after he missed pole position by just 0.251s with a best time of 1.41.437.

Hayden, who will test Honda’s pneumatic valve motor on Monday and Tuesday, had previously claimed a best of fourth on the grid this season.

The 2006 world champion said: “It’s nice to be up there and so close to pole position, I’m pretty happy. I really enjoyed those laps today with the qualifiers. It’s fun when it goes like that and being competitive is nice and at one stage I thought I might get pole position.

“Things went relatively smooth this weekend, the bottom line is that we need to turn it into a result tomorrow. Front row is nice but I got to do something with it when it counts We’ll see about tyre choice, that’s going to be the biggest mission tonight – trying to make the perfect choice.

“It is a compromise because some tyres are better for endurance but the lap time is not always there.

“We got a big chore tonight to make a good choice because 25 laps is a long time on the edge. It doesn’t take long to wear out the tyre if you get too much temperature in it. That is priority for tonight.”

Hayden said it was easily his best day of the season so far after he ended this morning’s final free practice session with the second best time and he added: “I would say it was my best day of the year, second this morning and third this afternoon. Hopefully I can be there and get the momentum rolling our way and keep building on it. It’s a lot more fun when you are competitive.”