After two days of testing in Jerez against the top Yamaha and Honda riders, Nicky Hayden appears to be making steady progress on his new Ducati MotoGP bike. Although sixth fastest, Hayden was less than 1/10th of a second off the third quickest time posted by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo.
Ducati MotoGP will not test again until 2009, but Hayden and his team are thus far convinced that he can run competitive lap times next year, and will not suffer the fate of Marco Melandri. Melandri had moved from a successful stint aboard Hondas to the Ducati factory team only to run into a brick wall, which he never overcame. Melandri has moved on to the Kawasaki MotoGP team for 2009. Kawasaki has been testing in Australia, rather than in Jerez.
