Check out what happened in March, scroll down to read 'em all

Spanish Grand Prix - Jerez Repsol Honda Press Release - Result 4th placeMarch 30

Hayden’s hard-fought result proved that the 2006 World Champion is really building momentum after a tough weekend at the season-opening Qatar GP. Just a tenth off the front row in qualifying, Hayden got a storming start that gave him the chance to run with the leaders. He did just that and was very much in the hunt for a podium finish, chasing Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, until he had a close call at turn one with five laps to go.

Nicky's comments

“It was fun to be competitive, to come into that stadium section the first lap with 130,000 people coming alive, bombs going off, it was cool, it was nice to be there in the mix. Obviously we’d like to have been having some bubbly afterwards, but the bike worked the best it’s worked all weekend and I was pushing hard. After I dropped back a bit I made a run on them, I was trying to give those guys a fight. Then I stayed on the brake a bit too long into turn one and pretty much crashed. It was elbow down and I thought it was done, but the front tyre was good, so I picked it up on the knee and saved it. You can ride these bikes so hard now and the front tyres are so good, that’s the first time I’ve done that. All in all it’s been a good day for Repsol Honda, so thanks to my team and for the support from all the guys. We came in here a lot more competitive, hopefully we can keep rolling from here and keep moving up.”

Spanish Grand Prix - Jerez - Honda Repsol Press ReleaseMarch 29

Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden delivered an impressive qualifying performance at sun-blessed Jerez today, qualifying in fourth place. That session backed up similarly strong showings during free practice. Hayden ended the day a tantalising 0.107 seconds off the front row. The American is now running both his RC212Vs with the latest chassis and will be working hard in warm-up to find that last bit of pace to allow him to battle up front.

Nicky's Comments

“We’ve made a bit of progress, but this afternoon a lot of guys went quicker and we didn’t quite have the feeling I was looking for to get the rhythm I need to be dangerous tomorrow. Definitely need to try to step it up in warm-up; me, the bike, everything’s going to need more speed if we want to be up there. It’s mainly getting the front working better over the bumps, though the bike/tyre combination’s not so bad. Qualifying, I wasn’t thrilled with my lap, I felt the bike had a bit more potential. I used a different front tyre than I’ve used in the past and maybe in these hot conditions it wasn’t ideal. The Michelin rear qualifier was really good today and definitely had more in it, so big thanks to Michelin. I’m looking forward to the race. Jerez is always unbelievable experience and I’m sure tomorrow’s going to be no different. Man, I just want to be up there and experience it.”

Spanish Grand Prix - Jerez - Repsol Honda Press Release28 March

Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden made a strong start to their Spanish GP weekend today, ending the first two practice sessions fourth fastest.
Nicky's best lap times were around lap record pace and less than half a second off today’s fastest lap. Hayden used a new spec chassis to achieve his best times of the day and prefers the new unit’s characteristics. Tomorrow Nicky will concentrate on longer tyre runs aboard their RC212Vs to prepare for Sunday’s race, round two of the 18-event 2008 MotoGP season.

Nicky's Comment

“We’re certainly a lot closer than we were at Qatar, which makes it a lot more fun. We were on top for part of the session, stayed up near the front a lot and we made a pretty big step between morning and afternoon, almost a half second. Overall the bikes seem not so bad and Michelins always work good at Jerez. We had a pretty good set-up from when we here for the tests in February, so tyre-wise, bike-wise, it’s not a lot different, though I did try a new chassis that definitely seemed to help, and I made my best lap times with it. We’re going to talk about running both bikes with the new chassis tomorrow. Everything’s pretty smooth so far, so big thanks to HRC for bringing me an improvement and to the team for everything. But it’s still early, there’s a lot of guys going fast, so we’ll see where we’re at come Sunday.”

Jerez Preview - Repsol Honda Press ReleaseMarch 21

Event preview

The 2008 MotoGP World Championship moves to Europe following its Middle East kick-off with Repsol Honda RC212V rider Nicky Hayden determined to shine at the Spanish GP, arguably the most spectacular event of the MotoGP year.

Repsol Honda has a rich history of success at Jerez, with six wins recorded by Mick Doohan (1996), Alex Crivillé (1997, 1998 and 1999) and Valentino Rossi (2002 and 2003). Hayden claimed a Spanish GP podium finish in 2006, his title-wining year.

Hayden is looking forward to getting back up front at Jerez, where last month he topped preseason tests with a stunning 1m 38.848s lap. The American, who rode to a determined tenth-place finish in Qatar, will run 2008 RC212Vs with a revised chassis at the Spanish round. Like his team-mate, Hayden loves the Spanish GP because it’s one of the most atmospheric races on the MotoGP calendar, with a noisy and knowledgeable crowd. Last year 244,461 fans watched the action at Jerez, making it the second best-attended MotoGP event, after Brno, which attracted 245,039 spectators.

Jerez offers a great challenge for riders and engineers with an interesting variety of corners. Excellent machine balance is vital to allow riders to maintain high corner speed through the many long turns, the real secret to a quick Jerez lap. The fastest corners on the track – the Crivillé and Ferrari right-handers – lead into the slowest – the final hairpin, scene of many a thrilling last-lap duel. Constructed in 1986, Jerez hosted its first GP the following year and quickly became popular with riders, teams and fans. Honda has won 15 of the 21 premier-class GPs at Jerez.

Nicky's Comments

“Qatar wasn’t a great weekend for us but we’ll be working hard to move on from that at Jerez. Our bike should work good at Jerez and in the past the Michelin tyres have worked really good there. I think it’s a cool track and it’s not a top-speed track. I like tracks where you’ve got to put sections together, and Jerez all flows together pretty good. The atmosphere is pretty cool – you come into the stadium section [the Nieto and Peluqui turns] on Sunday morning and it’s wild. Nowadays you can design a racetrack on the computer, you can do whatever you want – make that, generate this, design that – you can use every trick in the book, but if the place don’t have that atmosphere, money can’t buy that. Even if a racetrack gives tickets away you can’t guarantee the atmosphere you get at Jerez – there’s explosions going off, it just wild and that’s what makes it so good. From a riding point of view you definitely need edge grip for all the long corners and you need a bike that steers good in those long corners. It’s a good tracks and one of my favourites. But it’s the atmosphere that really makes it – if you haven’t been there you need to go.”

Qatar Grand Prix, Losail International Circuit- Repsol Honda Press ReleaseSunday March 9 2008, Race day

Nicky Hayden took tenth place. The opening round of the 2008 World Championship made history as the first night-time GP in six decades of GP racing, the 5.38km/3.43 mile Losail circuit illuminated by a 5.4 million watt lighting rig.

Nicky Hayden had a tough night. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion qualified on the second row of the grid yesterday but was unable to maintain a front-running pace in the race, slipping to 12th at one point before taking the flag in tenth. The American rode a 2007 RC212V.

The MotoGP World Championship now returns to normal daytime action when the action moves to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix on March 28/29/30.

Nicky's comments

“It wasn’t pretty for sure. We wanted more than just top ten but we struggled here from the time we rolled out at the tests. We haven’t really made much progress and it hasn’t been for a lack of effort, these guys have worked really hard. We got beat bad today so we’ve obviously got a lot of work to do. I got a decent start but I couldn’t push the way I wanted to, couldn’t be aggressive and couldn’t make anything happen, so I kinda went backwards then I went forward again. I was spinning a lot, which definitely didn’t do the rear tyre any favours, I really think we just missed the setup and worked the tyre way too hard so I was spinning way too much. It honestly wasn’t the most fun race but there’s still a lot of racing to go so we’ll try and brush this one off and definitely try to move up at Jerez.”

Qatar Grand Prix, Losail International Circuit - Repsol Honda Press ReleaseSaturday March 8 2008, Qualifying day,

Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden qualified sixth fastest in tonight’s floodlit qualifying session at Losail to put them on the second and third rows of the grid for tomorrow night’s season-opening Qatar GP.

Hayden, who is running 2007 spec RC212Vs here, rode an excellent fastest lap on qualifiers to secure the last spot on row two.

Tomorrow night’s Qatar Grand Prix will make history as the first World Championship event in almost 60 years to be run under floodlights. The race starts at 11pm.

Nicky's Comments

“We improved a lot this afternoon… heck, it’s the middle of the night! My first two runs on race tyres I improved quite a bit and in the end I was able to get a respectable lap on qualifies, nothing great, but I was able to give ourselves a decent chance. The big thing around here for us is the straightaway, we’re losing quite a bit of time, the bike I’m using is what I had at Valencia. I’m really excited to be going racing. I’d like to have a better race pace and all that but it is what it is and it’s time to line up and go for it. I’m enjoying riding at night, I think it’s cool, I hope some more tracks decide to get some lighting systems going. A big thanks to my team and to HRC, these guys have worked so hard, it’s silly how hard they have worked over the last week to get more bikes here, get more options for us, build a different chassis for Dani’s bike which seems to be a good step so I’m sure the next time I get on the 08 I’ll try one of those."

Kazuhiko Yamano, Repsol Honda team manager

“Nicky’s feeling better on the bike today, he went not so bad on qualifying tyres and race tyres are no problem for him. I think he can get a good result tomorrow.”

Qatar Grand Prix Preview - Repsol Honda press releaseMarch 3rd

The 2008 MotoGP World Championship will make history at Losail on March 9, with the first-ever night-time Grand Prix race. Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa are looking forward to this new challenge but most of all they are raring to going racing after a long winter of testing and development work.

Since last November the pair have been working hard on the latest version of Honda’s RC212V. Hayden has shown his pace in preseason tests, topping the first Sepang session in late January as well as last month’s Jerez outing. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion has a good record at the Qatar GP – he finished a close second at Losail in 2006 after taking third place the previous year.

Losail hosts its fifth MotoGP race this year, but the 2008 Qatar GP will be very different from the 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 events, thanks to its night-time schedule. Track temperature will be dramatically different from previous events and that alone changes the character of the circuit and the race. Riders had the opportunity to acclimatise to these very different conditions during night-time tests on February 28 and 29. The circuit is lit by an amazing 5.4 million watt lighting system, the biggest of its kind, which could illuminate a road from Doha to Moscow or 70 FIFA football fields.

The circuit itself, constructed in 2004 to bring MotoGP to the Middle East for the first time, is a sinuous test for man and machine, with the layout of individual corners inspired by famous corners at racetracks from around the world. Corner speed and machine agility are vitally important at Losail with only one straight worthy of the name – the 1.068km/0.664 mile start-finish, which demands plenty of horsepower.

Nicky's Comments

“I’m just really happy to be going racing again because that’s what it’s all about. Qatar is going to be an interesting weekend – first race of the year and it’s running at night too. The actual track is really good – the layout is awesome, the grip is good, the surface is good, there’s plenty of run-off, the safety’s great, it’s everything you could want, but you just don’t have 100,000 people going wild for their favourite rider and it’s missing that bit of history. I think running it at night is going to make a difference to that, it’s going to be real interesting how the tyres work at night and the temperature and the wind. I think it’s gonna be cool, I’m really looking forward to it because I enjoyed riding at night in the tests. You do need some ponies for that front straightaway because you come on to it quite slow and you need to accelerate because it’s a long straightaway. I’ve spent a lot of time under lights doing dirt track at home, but until the tests here, the only time I’d ridden a roadracer in the dark was practising for the Suzuka Eight Hours in 2003 and that was really cool.”