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In the race on Saturday, the two Honda riders crossed the wire extremely close together, with Nicky Hayden on the podium in third place and Michael Van Der Mark fourth, but not by much, after failing in the attack on his American teammate right on the last turn before the chequered flag.
On Sunday, on the other hand, the two team Ten Kate riders had more of a struggle battling against hard and fast rivals like Spaniard Xavi Fores astride his team Barni Ducati, the official Yamahas ridden by Alex Lowes and Niccolò Canepa and the BMW ridden by an extremely fast Jordi Torres.
Hometown hero Hayden finished the weekend with a fifth place in Race 2 after a 21 lap battle: “To be honest, I’m pretty disappointed about how this second race went, especially because of how things were going before the red flag. I didn’t have a good start because there was a problem with the lights, but in turns 1 and 2 I made up several positions. I felt more and more comfortable in the saddle until I hit my best lap, but then the race was suspended.”
The red flag brought everyone back to pit lane and at the second start, Nicky’s situation had changed: “We still aren’t sure exactly what happened. The team is checking the data, but the bike was different. I could brake like I had in the race on Saturday so I lost some confidence… it’s a real shame.”
A shame for Nicky who, after his podium in Race 1, had a foretaste of a similar result for the second race as well: “After the first start I thought I’d be able to achieve something special, but it didn’t go the way I had hoped. In any case, I want to thank the team for giving me the best bike they could and all the fans that came out to support me. I would definitely like to have more weekends like this one.”
Dutchman Van Der Mark, seventh across the wire, had a decidedly complicated Race 2 after running long at the Corkscrew before the red flag: “I also had problems with the light. Something happened to it and it created chaos at the start. I tried to remedy the situation, but at the Corkscrew, as I was trying to shake Camier, I braked too hard and lost the rear, ending up in the sand.”
The young number 60 rider had a bad scare, but he managed to avoid contact with the other riders: “I was scared but fortunately I didn’t make contact with anyone, so it went well. I got back on the track quite far back, but the red flag helped me, resetting the race. At the second start I noticed that the feeling with the bike was not the same, but I kept pushing as hard as I could to make up for lost ground until reaching the top 10. I wanted to be even faster, but it wasn’t easy duelling with the others and, all told, I’m happy with our seventh place and with the entire weekend here at Laguna.”
