Not only he found it difficult to outscore the Doctor, but the 2006 MotoGP champion barely made the Top 10 in all 9 testing sessions this off-season, leading many to believe that he will not be quite the constant presence in the higher positions of the race classifications this season.
Despite the fact that Honda were unbeatable throughout the winter and Yamaha is also pretty far ahead in terms of performance, Hayden believes Ducati will have a good chance of fighting them is they manage to resolve some of the issues they encountered in recent days. And steering if one of them.
“Our focus will be to try and get the bike to steer a bit better through those spots. Hopefully as the track gets cleaned up more, it will help us a bit more than some of the others,” said the American after the 2-day test in Qatar this week.
He added that although low-positioned in the timing reports this week, Ducati is not that far away from pace-setters Honda in real race pace, and expects a tight battle for the top positions this weekend.
“Everyone is really tight on times, and I think that's pretty cool. I like how competitive it is, and we know it's going to be like that all season,” he concluded, not before he sent a support message to the people of Japan following the tragedy that has hit the country a week ago.
“I'd like to let everyone in Japan know the world is with them in this difficult time. I've worked with many Japanese companies over the years, so I have a lot of friends and fans there. Stay strong; we're thinking of you,” said the former Honda rider.
The 2011 MotoGP opener kicks off tomorrow, when the first practice sessions are scheduled to take place on the Losail International Circuit.
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