MotoGP Jerez test: Nicky Hayden third in BMW shootout

Nicky Hayden saw his hopes of collecting the keys to a new BMW car dashed by rain and the super fast performances of Bridgestone rivals Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi today.

Having set the fastest time in the dry yesterday on qualifying tyres, many backed Hayden as the favourite to win the BMW in this afternoon’s 40-miniute qualifying shootout.

• Get all the latest from the Jerez test here

But heavy rain all morning virtually dashed the factory Honda rider’s hopes, as he had to settle for third place on a damp Jerez track.

His best time of 1.50.785 was 1.522s adrift of Stoner’s pace and a late charge from Fiat Yamaha rider Rossi dropped Hayden to third by 0.205s.

The Kentucky rider said: “”It was fun, because it’s a bit of competition, and not just because there was a car on the line, we could’ve been racing for a piece of bubblegum and everybody would’ve tried just as hard! We’re all competitors and it was pretty fun but conditions were not ideal.

“I wish they had been a little more stable, but right at the end when the clock was about to hit zero the conditions were almost at their worst, they were about to go dry. We did our best time a little earlier in the session. We ran full rains throughout, I’d seen that 49 and knew that was going to be tough, Casey (Stoner) really put one down.

“Nonetheless the bike was working pretty well in the rain. I’m not happy about third but for me those intermediate conditions – a little patchy with a dry line starting to form – are about the worst. That’s something I’ve definitely been working on and thinking a lot about, so in some ways I’m happy we did okay in those conditions.

“Full rain’s normally not too bad for me and the dry’s not bad but that in between bit is quite tricky, so we’ve worked a lot on that. It’s been a positive day, even this morning in the rain we didn’t have to make any big changes to get the bike reasonable.

“We were really good in the full wet, the Michelins were working well and there was one front in particular that I liked. We just need to improve some more in those in between conditions.”

Hayden’s Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa decided to sit out today’s action in the rain, with the Spaniard not wanting to risk further injury.

The triple world champion is still recovering from the broken right hand he suffered on the opening day of 2008 testing in Sepang last month.