Nicky Hayden Quotes (12 Quotes)

Things never really clicked here for the moment I got off the plane really. Seemed like I was on the back foot all weekend and things never came good to be honest. In the race I had a good battle with a few guys and went back and forth with Barros a few times then I overshot at the end of the straightaway and lost a few places. I feel I let my boys down here and don't feel good about it. I just want to make sure we come out of the gate fast in Sepang next week and put things straight.

I'm so happy to be to be on the podium today. Before the race things weren't going to plan. In the morning warm-up we were so slow and were in real trouble. My guys made some changes and I have to be real grateful to them as they got it right and that's why I got third. The bike was so much better in the race than it had been all weekend - so much faster.

Things are steadily coming better, but I'm having problems with a few places on the track.

Overall, I'm happy with the way it felt. There were a few places that I was faster, but I didn't get it done. I'll keep working on it.

I do enjoy battling with Valentino. It doesn't get any better than him and it just feels good to know he's the world champion and it just brings out the best in people to be right there and fighting with him.

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.

I needed to get a good start. It just wasn't as comfortable, my pace wasn't as fast.

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.

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.

Everything felt really good today with the bike and the grip,

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 tires I tried today were superb. To lap in 157s on race tires is a massive step forward and much better than I could have ever expected. We've improved the machine, found some good tires and I think I've improved my riding as well over these past two days. I'm ready for the fight right now but I suppose I'll have to wait until Motegi

Tomorrow is going to be really tough because there are a lot of guys going really fast ... right now I'm not consistently fast enough (to win) ... but we'll definitely go for it.