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Paddock veteran Mat Oxley is assigned the task of analysing Nicky Hayden´s final year onboard Honda machinery as Paddock Press focuses on former champions. The Briton sees 2008 as a difficult year for the 2006 titlist, although he gives credit for Hayden´s efforts.

`It´s been a tough old year for Nicky Hayden. This year has been even more difficult for him than 2007, mainly because he´s been developing a bike all year; he swapped bikes in the middle of the season, getting the pneumatic valve RCV212V and pretty much since then he's been developing the bike. That´s why you see that his results really started to come good in the last few races of the season,´ says Oxley.

`He´s a big fighter and I´m sure we all look forward to see how he goes next season on the Ducati.´

Source: MotoGP.com

Nicky has been voted 5th in Crash.net's reader poll of riders!

Crash.net recently asked for your MotoGP star of 2008, from a shortlist of ten riders provided, and - with voting having now closed - the time has come to reveal the results.

During the next ten weekdays, we will be revealing the voting results in reverse order, with the winner being revealed on Wednesday December 3.

More than 54,000 votes were cast for the MotoGP poll. The average score given for each rider was used to produce the final ranking.
 

MotoGP Star of the Year - fifth place:

Name: Nicky Hayden
Team: Repsol Honda
Bike: Honda RC212V
Wins: 0
Podiums: 2
Pole Positions: 0
Fastest laps: 1
Championship points: 155
Championship position: 6th

For the second season in succession, Nicky Hayden struggled to replicate his world championship winning 990cc form on the 800cc Honda RC212V - but his never-say-die attitude, sideways riding style and popularity with fans saw him placed fifth in your MotoGP star of the year vote, one place ahead of double 2008 race-winning team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Hayden's attempts to return to the front of the field saw him take on the task of race-developing the problematic pneumatic-valve engine from round eight at Donington Park - six rounds before Pedrosa used it.

The American came within one corner of a podium next time out at Assen before finally claiming the pneumatic's first ever rostrum at Indianapolis, round 14. Nicky took a further podium at Phillip Island and qualified on the front row five times during his final season for Honda, but it was his off track 'battles' that arguably won him the most respect.

Long running rumours that Hayden has received second-class treatment at Honda since the arrival of Pedrosa seemed to be reinforced when the Spaniard made his shock switch from Michelin to the more successful Bridgestone tyres for the final five rounds - an option never even discussed with Hayden.

The subsequent attack by Pedrosa's manager Alberto Puig - in response to Hayden's claim that the former racer "runs HRC" - only seems to have increased Hayden's popularity, while the whole episode publically lifted the lid on the kind of political turmoil going on behind the scenes at Repsol Honda.

Despite such upheaval, the 2009 Ducati rider scored 28 points more than last year - even though he missed both Misano and Brno due to injury - and finished two places above his 2007 championship ranking.

5th - Nicky Hayden
6th - Dani Pedrosa
7th - James Toseland
8th - Colin Edwards
9th - Toni Elias
10th - Alex de Angelis