Nicky Hayden was introduced to his new Ducati team as early as Monday afternoon and immediately took on the 2008 Ducati GP8 bike for a few laps around the Ricardo Tormo circuit. After getting to know the bike a little bit, the former MotoGP champion then got acquainted to the new GP9 model.
“It has been a very intense day and full of many things to test and to understand, but it was exactly as I expected it to be. I did just one run with the GP8 and then I switched completely to the GP9. Obviously there is a lot of work to do but I am happy, it was a good day that has allowed me to understand that the bike has good potential and, more than anything, I can say that I really enjoyed myself,” admitted Hayden after his first test with Ducati.
The American admitted he is a long way to matching his teammate's times – as he was consistently more than 1.5 seconds slower than Casey Stoner – but soon identified the points he needs to focus on in order to improve his performances with the GP9.
“This first day has given me an appreciation of the bike and the team. One of the things that really impressed me the most was the acceleration. I found myself pretty comfortable on the bike, and I really didn't make a lot of changes to levers and handlebars. We have not even changed a lot the settings, we have just made some small changes, some mapping settings, a couple of tires, in order to try and understand the direction of the bike and to feel comfortable on it,” concluded Hayden.
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