Valencia MotoGP: Nicky Hayden fit for 1000cc test

Nicky Hayden has been passed fit to take part in this week’s crucial 1000cc test in Valencia after he was caught up in a four-rider collision at the first corner of yesterday’s final Grand Prix of 2011.

The American was struck by factory Ducati team-mate Valentino Rossi’s GP11.1 after the Italian had been hit hard by Alvaro Bautista’s Suzuki. The Spaniard had tangled with Andrea Dovizioso in the braking zone of the first corner.

Hayden’s falling Ducati then wiped out Randy de Puniet but luckily all four escaped injury. Hayden took a painful blow to his right hand, though X-rays confirmed he had not suffered any broken bones in the incident and he will be fit to start testing Ducati’s new GP12 in Valencia tomorrow (Tuesday).

He told MCN: “I just had an X-ray on my right wrist and my side and it looks like nothing is broken, so that’s positive. I know we got some different frame options and I’ll definitely have the new front part to try.”

The 2006 world champion said the first corner melee pretty much summed up a disastrous season for Ducati in which Rossi and Hayden have scored just one podium each.

Italian Rossi’s involvement in the incident yesterday was his fourth successive crash and the last time he scored points in a race came at the Motorland Aragon in mid-September.

Hayden added: “It was a first lap thing and just a domino effect. I saw it happening out of the corner of my eye but there was nothing I could do. It just looked like a racing deal to me. Dovi came down in there pretty hot and it looked like he came over pretty hard on Bautista and they collided. I was just tipping in but it was a racing deal and I’m not going to point fingers. But it’s the first lap on slicks on a wet track and obviously nobody is going to take it easy. You probably should give everybody a little room but that’s not how we think.

“It was unfortunate for me and the team. You come in and work all week and then to end it almost before the first corner is not good but at least we all got up. It would have been nice to see what we could do. The guys at the front were really fast but we know our bike works really good in those conditions. It was cold and hard to get heat into the tyres and sometimes in those conditions all the Ducati’s have been on top because the carbon frame is stiff and really works the tyres. We could have had a good race but that is easy to say now and I’m sure all of us down in the first corner had that feeling.”

For more news and views from Valencia, check out the November 9 issue of MCN.