As you probably know by now, Nicky Hayden has finally broken his podium duck at Ducati, taking third place on the rostrum at his “home” track, Indianapolis Grand Prix!
The Kentucky Kid held off a late charge by Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso, incidentally the man who replaced Hayden at HRC, to take his second consecutive podium at the brickyard!
Here’s what Hayden had to say after the race-
Nicky Hayden – (Ducati MotoGP Team) (3rd)
“It feels great to be on the podium here at Indianapolis and I want to thank all the team, my friends, family and fans for their support because this has been a tough season and I’ve needed every one of them. I was really careful at the start because I watched the 125cc race earlier on and the guy in my grid position made a jump start – it made me think that I really didn’t want to do that today! As a result I didn’t get a great start but I saw Lorenzo charge past a few guys, making a hole in the pack, so I tried to follow him.I pushed hard and in the middle of the race I went as fast as I have all weekend, but I didn’t have any more than that. Dovizioso came on strong at the end so I gave myself a little pep talk and made sure I was ready for whatever he had. He was going to have to come up with something special to keep me off the podium here at Indy! Thankfully I kept it together and brought it home.
We don’t have long to the next race at Misano but I’m in the mood for a little party tonight. My buddies have seen the sun come up every day since Friday but hopefully they’ve got something left in the tank for me!”
Once again, mega congrats to Nicky and the Ducati team, and we hope this is just the beginning!
Source: Nicky’s Official Site
