US MotoGP: Hayden plays down Laguna Seca hat-trick hopes

Reigning MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden has played down his hopes of maintaining his 100 per cent winning record in Sunday’s American MotoGP clash in Laguna Seca.

Hayden has been triumphant on home soil in 2005 and ’06 and goes into his biggest race of the season on the back of successive third places in Holland and Germany.

The 25-year-old is showing signs that his disastrous early season for is behind him, but he says winning in Laguna this weekend will be tougher than ever.

“I’m going to have to dig deep, each year it’s got harder. I’m looking forward to it more than I was a few weeks ago but I’m still going to have to tough it out, “said Hayden, who said any track knowledge advantage he had when MotoGP returned to Laguna in 2005 had now disappeared.

“After two years, against these guys, maybe two years with a club racer, you’d still have it. Against these boys after about two years, they pretty well got local knowledge. Plus the local knowledge where it used to help so much was going up to the Corkscrew where it was all blind. Now that’s pretty standard, “said the Repsol Honda rider.