Nicky Hayden looking for strong Honda finish

Nicky Hayden believes he can bring down the curtain on his long Honda career in successful style as he looks to continue his recent revival in the MotoGP world championship.

Hayden has been on the podium in two of the last three races and he’s hoping to use some of his vast experience of the Sepang circuit to help him bow out at HRC in positive fashion.

The 2006 world champion has just two races remaining at Repsol Honda before he moves to partner Casey Stoner in Ducati’s factory squad, and eyeing his prospects ahead of this weekend’s Sepang race the American said: “The last few races have been a lot of fun and made me pretty happy.

“We need more, but it’s nice to be competitive. I owe a big thanks to everyone involved – Honda, Michelin and all the guys from Yamano [Repsol Honda team manager] all the way through, because it would have been real easy to fold up on me, but the easy way is just not our style.

Just need to keep it rolling! No one can say they say they don’t know Sepang, it seems like we spend half the year there. Last year we did three tests and a race there, so the nearby airport hotel is like your second home. We spend about four weeks a year there, so you walk in and it’s scary because the people know you!

“Sepang is a great track. I like it, our bike has been running good, and you need a bike that’s running fast there. The track has got a little bit of everything: some hard braking, some pretty quick corners like turns five and six. I think that’s why we test there so much, you can’t fake it there because both the bike and the rider have got to be able to do everything pretty good.”