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!”

You can watch Nicky’s post-race interview here

Once again, mega congrats to Nicky and the Ducati team, and we hope this is just the beginning!

Source: Nicky’s Official Site

The Indianapolis Grand Prix has just been run and won (by Jorge Lorenzo), and our favourite Kentuckian managed to hold off a strong late challenge from Andrea Dovizioso to take his first podium for Ducati, with a third place!

HUGE congrats to Nicky and Ducati, you guys have worked tremendously hard together to get that bike running up at the front, and hope this podium inspires you for the rest of the season!

And they had all better party hard tonight!

Pos. Points Num. Rider Nation Team Motorcycle Total time Km/h Gap
1 25 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 47′13.592 149.976
2 20 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 47′23.027 149.478 9.435
3 16 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 47′26.539 149.294 12.947
4 13 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 47′27.070 149.266 13.478
5 11 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 47′39.846 148.599 26.254
6 10 52 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 47′46.000 148.280 32.408
7 9 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 47′47.992 148.177 34.400
8 8 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Ducati Team Ducati 47′48.448 148.154 34.856
9 7 24 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 47′58.597 147.631 45.005
10 6 3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 47′58.969 147.612 45.377
11 5 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 47′59.070 147.607 45.478
12 4 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 48′05.886 147.259 52.294
13 3 44 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Pramac Racing Ducati 48′17.144 146.686 1′03.552
14 2 41 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda 48′28.678 146.105 1′15.086

Not classified
33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki 42′36.675 3 Lap
88 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 39′29.440 5 Lap
46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 21′16.362 16 Lap

Source: MotoGP.com