The pair will start in fifth and sixth places for the first British motorcycle grand prix to be held at the Northamptonshire track since 1986, with Hayden lapping just 0.062sec quicker than 20-time race winner Stoner.

Hayden beat Stoner for the first time, in a race they both finished as team-mates, at Jerez earlier this year.

“We made a step forward today,” said Hayden. “Yesterday I knew that we weren’t as far off as we seemed and even though we didn’t quite have the right feeling for the conditions a few small changes have helped make us faster.

“We’ll find out exactly where we are when the lights go out tomorrow.”

The American expressed his happiness with the new Desmosedici GP10 after the race, and now says he is feeling a lot more settled on the machine after entering his second season with the factory Ducati team.

“I just feel a lot more comfortable on it and also with the team. It’s the second year with the team after a long time on Honda bikes,” said Hayden. “It was a big change last year and I certainly didn’t adapt the way I wanted to, but this year things seem to be going a lot better. The communication with the team is a lot better than it was last year and I like the bike.”

Expanding, Hayden continued: “I would say the engine certainly is smoother, and has a better feel when you open the power and try to accelerate out of the corner. Now I need to go and be fast for a whole weekend from when we show up on Friday, and at a track we haven’t had two days of testing at, like Qatar. That was one of my targets for this off-season; to improve that. I guess we’ll find out at Jerez if that’s the case.”

Hayden’s discussion of the comfort he now feels as he goes into his second year with Ducati has something to do with the methods of operation. He and team-mate Casey Stoner work closely together, sharing information to help one another.

“Some things that work for him won’t work for me,” said Hayden. “But there are other times where he’ll come across something that works, and it’ll work for me. With the limited amount of track time we have this year and last year, even, you use every bit of information you can get.”

It is a process that spreads across the satellite Ducati teams as well, as Hayden added: “We share data and anything we want. To their credit, it’s open book around there. Even between Mika Kallio’s (Pramac Racing) crew chief to Héctor Barberá’s (Páginas Amarillas Aspar), they all work out of the same truck. Everybody’s playing for the same team around there, to try to beat the other manufacturers. There are no secrets, nothing like that.”

The elevation of Vittoriano Guareschi to Team Manager, whilst still maintaining his responsibilities as Test rider, has also been an added factor says Hayden.

“Vito has stepped in and has done a great job so far, and I’ve really been impressed with some of the things he has done. I’ve been a supporter of his from the beginning. A lot of people thought it was going to be too much for a guy with no real experience in that position. So far we’re off to a good start, and I think he’s a big asset to our team. I think we’ve got a good set-up.”

As the season progresses the new six-engines per rider rule will also play a part in how each team manages its campaign. Hayden touched on the subject and discussed how Ducati were preparing, after very briefly using a second engine in Qatar.

“The team has a plan for that,” he said. “On some weekends I’ll ride both bikes, but it just so happened in Qatar that we had tested there; we already had a pretty decent set-up. I actually just had one bike working well, and I didn’t really ever take the other one out except early on Sunday. That was just to do a lap to make sure it ran well in case I needed to jump on it for anything. But we’ll be using both bikes at most tracks a lot more frequently.”

Make sure you check it out!

Nicky Hayden is no stranger to hard work and is a big fan of testing his MotoGP machinery whenever he gets the chance, so after a frustrating first season with the Ducati Marlboro team – which has seen him suffer bad luck on several occasions – the American rider will be an enthusiastic participant in this week’s three day Valencia test.

It would be no surprise to see Hayden total up more laps than any of his MotoGP rivals this week on the latest model of the Desmosedici, as the former World Champion completes a year since first testing with the Italian factory at the end of last season.

Reading through the final 2009 World Championship classification after the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana will be an uncomfortable experience for the Kentuckian competitor, but Hayden has undoubtedly been on an upwards trend throughout the year and Sunday brought him a second top five result in two races.

“It’s not spectacular, but we’ve ended the season with two top fives and we know we have a direction to work in over the winter,” stated Hayden after the Valencia race. “It hasn’t been a great season for me in terms of results but the improvements we have made since the start are huge and I’m excited about the future. We’re 13th overall, which looks awful on paper, but we are only eleven points off seventh and I had three first-lap incidents that weren’t my fault – just one of those could have made the difference. Next season starts on Monday and I can’t wait to get back to work.”

Reviewing the final race of the year in detail, Hayden also commented, “I thought it might be possible to do a little better but I didn’t get the best start. The clutch was slipping a little bit down the first couple of straights and I lost some positions. After that I managed to pull myself up again and from there it was a case of doing my best to try and bridge the gap to Colin (Edwards).”

“The bike was working quite well but every time I closed a tenth or two he had an answer and pulled it back out. Towards the end I had some issues in a couple of left-handers and my pace dropped too much. Anyway, I had an enjoyable race, going back and forth with a few guys at the beginning especially.”

Down in 14th place in the standings after 13 races with Ducati, the last of which ended with a blameless first lap crash at Misano, it is fair to say that things have not yet gone to plan for Nicky Hayden with the Italian factory team, but the honest and hardworking American is philosophical about his 2009 season so far.

His results have shown an upward trend since earlier in the year when he changed Crew Chiefs and Juan Martinez was brought back to Ducati to work with him and Hayden already has a 2010 contract with the Bologna-based team and a home podium at Indianapolis to show for his efforts this year.

The Kentuckian rider shared his thoughts on Ducati’s Desmoblog (http://blog.ducati.com) ahead of the final phase of the 2009 MotoGP World Championship:

“Well it has been almost exactly one year to the day that I signed my first Ducati contract, and wow, what an experience! I always wondered what it would be like to be a Ducati rider and now I know very well. It’s everything I ever hoped it would be and more. This truly is a special brand with many special people. It has not always been the smoothest transition if I am truthful with everybody and the results haven’t been great, but this has allowed me to see both sides of the people and I can say that they have been right on point with their treatment of me, on the good days and the bad days.”

“People always talk about how it’s important to never give up, work hard , stay together and results will come, but I’m not sure they always believe this is the case. If anybody doubts this theory take a look at my season – we started off bad and I was not competitive, but with the right attitude and all the hard work from every single person involved with me and that team, we have proved it’s true. There was one stretch in the season where my results looked like 15th, 12th, 12th, 10th, 8th, 5th. That progression is not just a question of luck. It’s a matter of everybody pulling together and working towards the goal, and this is what we believe.”

“Even though most people would say the highlight of my season would have to be Indy, where I stood on the podium of my home GP after a real dog fight of a race, I would say my proudest moment came when the team boss, Livio Suppo, called to tell me Ducati wanted to bring me back for a second year. No contract negotiation between managers and no games, just that Ducati would pick up the option on my second year, and give me another shot. I really do feel it’s where I belong and I couldn’t be happier. So in closing I would just like thank all the Ducati fans out there for supporting me and the team. I know our potential is high and we wont be completely satisfied until we are up where we belong and I promise we will give everything to make y’all proud!”

Source: MotoGP.com

Suppo also stated bluntly that he did not believe that Nicky Hayden was the answer to their problems. “Nicky’s results are disappointing, he is below our expectations of him,” Suppo said. But the Ducati factory team boss also pointed out that Hayden was making progress. “He was sixth in Brno, which is very good – especially when you realize that his lap times were almost good enough to be on the podium. Now we will wait and see what happens at Indianapolis, last year he did a good job. We will watch what happens and take it from there.”

Suppo refused to be drawn on whether Ducati would be exercising the option the factory has on Nicky Hayden this weekend. “I cannot tell you anything more. Not because I don’t want to, but because quite simply there is nothing to tell,” he told the German website.

While yes, Hayden’s results haven’t been close to Stoner’s, he has shown signs of improvement, and I don’t know why Suppo feels the need to “blast” his riders in public. Considering what Melandri went through last year, and Capirossi’s results in 2007 may have included a shock victory, none of their riders besides Stoner have ever really got the Ducati working for them. Yet they still feel that because Stoner can win on the bike, the second rider’s performance is not worthy and they replace him for another rider all for history to repeat itself again…

Also, seeing as Lorenzo turned down a massive sum of money from Ducati to stay with his Fiat Yamaha team, and Capirossi chose to stay with his Suzuki team instead of returning, Ducati are going to be pretty hard pressed to find a new rider if they feel Hayden isn’t part of their 2010 plans. Pedrosa may be “talking” with the team, but whether that bears fruition is anybody’s guess.

Ducati has already tried and failed to clinch a big money swoop on Jorge Lorenzo and Italian veteran Loris Capirossi also turned down the Bologna factory before he signed a new Suzuki deal.

It was revealed in Indianapolis too that Ducati was also in pursuit of Dani Pedrosa with the Spaniard still not having committed himself to a new two-year Honda contract.

All have been linked with taking Hayden’s ride but the 2006 world champion said he was unfazed by all the constant talk linking him with the axe.

Hayden, who will find out whether he will be retained by Ducati during next weekend’s San Marino MotoGP clash in Misano, said: “I’ve been in this game long enough and like it or not, MotoGP is a business.

“And if you look at the result sheets, maybe my results wouldn’t be good enough. They’ve (Ducati) got sponsors and people to please.

“I realise that I probably made some hard phone calls on Monday with some of them 12th places. Do I like it? No, because when I look in the mirror, I see why they need to bring somebody else in because I haven’t got the results.

“So that hurts when it’s on the inside. But that’s the business and they’ve got to do what they feel best.

“I don’t know if just bringing in new guys every year is the right thing and the best way to fix the situation. So we’ll see what happens.

“I still got this challenge and really feel like we can do it and I’m not ready to give up just yet.

“So we’ll see what happens. Do I get my feelings hurt? No, I’m not that big a sissy.”

Hayden even joked about his situation when talking about the rumoured £7m-a-year offered to tempt Lorenzo away from Yamaha. “If they make me that offer they made Lorenzo, then all things will be forgotten.

“Eight million a year will patch things up pretty easy, so we’ll be good,“ laughed the Kentucky rider.

Source: MCN