MotoGP Sepang test: Nicky Hayden satisfied despite small crash

Nicky Hayden declared himself satisfied with the opening day of testing in Sepang, despite the American suffering a small crash at the final corner shortly before the track closed.

Hayden had just completed his best lap of the day with a 2:01.949 when he lost the front-end of his Repsol Honda RC212V in the braking zone for the left-hand last turn.

He walked away unscathed and his bike was barely damaged at all as Hayden said: “It was about as easy as you could topple over.

“I was pushing right at the end having just done my best lap of the day. I was getting off the brakes and I lost the front.”

Nicky Hayden said the new RC212V chassis may have played a part, with him complaining about a lack of feel recently with the new frame.

“I didn’t have a lot of warning or feedback and that’s what bit Dani (Pedrosa) at the last test,” added Hayden, who was again on his own with team-mate Pedrosa still sidelined with the broken right hand he suffered in the second of two crashes in Sepang last month.

Nicky Hayden rode the RC212V fitted with last year’s conventional spring valve motor, not even attempting to complete any laps on the struggling new pneumatic valve V4 in the 80-laps he completed today.

But Hayden said he still made some progress adding: “I feel like we learned some things, but there was nothing too spectacular.

“I tried some chassis geometry stuff and a few new tyres so I feel like we made a bit of progress. We are not even going to try the new engine but it was a pretty routine day really.”

Nicky Hayden is due to end his test session tomorrow (Wednesday) at the end of day two.