“The race is always what's important. Qualifying now is so important. You have so many riders, so close together. The way the grid is it's really important to qualify well. The bike feels so much better today than yesterday. We didn't change anything major - just a few little things to get it to steer and get my confidence up to where I can ride it. That last lap was fun. Michelin qualifiers around here… you can hang it out and go for it. When you've got that grip you just kind of open the throttle and go for it. I feel like with a good start we can be right in there with the boys.”
~ Nicky Hayden
“Today I rode the new bike all day and we made some good progress. It was the first time we've had chance to spend a lot of time on the chassis and engine and I went quite a lot faster on it than I did last time here so that's positive. It's still a prototype machine and there are a lot of things we still need to try because it's quite a bit different to my other bike. It would have been nice to test the two bikes back to back but I'm sure we'll get a chance tomorrow.”
~ Nicky Hayden
“There is no excuse for me not getting better. I just have to get better. But all things considered this is a good start to the season.”
~ Nicky Hayden
“We spent a lot of time working with the new chassis today and testing some improved parts that Honda has brought from Japan. The bike's now really stable on the brakes and turning into the corner is much better, so we're getting there. It's still moving around a bit on the exit of corners and better traction is something we're working on. We're moving forward though and we've still got a lot of stuff to try.”
~ Nicky Hayden
“It's been a really worthwhile test and we've achieved a lot. We've got the machine much better turning into corners and the Michelin race tyres I tried today were superb. To lap in 1min 57secs on race tyres is a massive step forward and much better than I could have ever expected,”
~ Nicky Hayden
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