Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi qualified with the seventh- and thirteenth-best times, respectively, for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Although it was his best qualifying performance so far this season, the American had hoped to build on his strong Friday performance and qualify on the second row.
Valentino Rossi and the team weren’t able to find a good setup for the English circuit. The Italian lacks experience from last year and was only able to ride in good weather conditions in today’s two sessions, though without finding enough feeling to decisively improve his performance.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) 7th, 2:04.304
“Although we had problems, this is my best qualifying position of the year, but to be two seconds off is too much. We tried some options to get it better, but from my first outing of the weekend, we haven’t really gone much faster. We tried stuff to make it better—maybe we tried to do too much—and we haven’t improved. Certainly the front isn’t good over the bumps, and the rear is spinning a lot and moving around. It was pretty frustrating, really, but I hope for rain tomorrow. Doing 20 laps in the wet around here wouldn’t be easy, but I think it would help our chances.”
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Marlboro Team) 13th, 2:05.781
“It’s been a very difficult day—actually, a very difficult weekend. We were a long way off Friday, but in a way it was understandable since I didn’t know the track. Today, though, I had hoped to do much better, but we only lowered our time by one second, while the others cut two. The gap is considerable, and we’re even having trouble compared to the other Ducatis, so evidently we haven’t managed to work well at this track. I’m having difficulty riding, I’m slow on corner entry, and I’m not able to take the lines I want. We found many things with the bike’s settings, but without making progress. They’re saying it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so we’ll see. I don’t think we can be as competitive in the wet as we have been on other tracks, but it would probably be a bit better than dry. Anyway, we have to do the best with what we have.”
