The WSB series visited the resurfaced Sepang track this weekend, and Race 1 saw the usual suspects at the front. Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes dominated the dry race by posting a big gap at the flag over second place teammate Jonathan Rea. Ducati’s Chaz Davies came home third.
Sunday’s Race 2 saw a wet track and Nicky Hayden (Honda) took full advantage with a near flag-to-flag victory over Davide Giugliano (Ducati) in second and Rea in third. A drying track near the end of the race saw Hayden lose grip and Giugliano closing the gap, but Hayden held on for the win.
This is Nicky Hayden’s first win in the WSB series, and the first win for Honda since Rea won in 2014 before he switched to Kawasaki. Hayden joins a select few who have won both a MotoGP race and a WSB race during their career.
Rea still holds a sizable points lead in the championship. Here are the complete results for Race 1 and Race 2, and visit the WSB site for additional details.
See more of MD’s great photography:
Congratulations Nicky Hayden! Another Championship can’t come soon enough. Very glad to see him smiling again, with a well earned trophy.
Good for Hayden. It was a well earned win and a confirmation that he could be a contender with a competitive bike under him. I suspect that the two points leaders probably didn’t make much effort to catch Hayden given the importance of staying upright, but I’m not sure they could have anyway.
What’s surprising is that race 1 was dry, race 2 wet, and race 2 (where Nicky won) the fastest lap is 13 seconds slower. That’s a way bigger gap than I would have expected. Sykes was blisteringly fast in race 1. His fastest lap was the only one recorded in the 2:03 range. For reference the fastest lap in race 2 was put down by Giugliano in 2:16 range.
I think that’s about par for the course. Obviously it varies with a lot of factors including the length/layout of the track. But if you look at wet/dry laps in MotoGP you see the same big gap.
The gloom and doom gang strikes again.
Really? Seems like they’ve been unusually quiet so far…
It’s always 50% the bike and 50% the rider. If your bike sucks you can’t win. The Honda sucks.
Don’t be daft.
The Honda might be behind the Kawasaki and Ducati, but it is ahead of the Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW and MV.
Nice point!
Hope no one tells Mark Van Der Mark that. He’s not winning, but he is outperforming Nicky in most races and sits fourth in the championship. No question the Kawasaki particularly, but also the Ducati seem to be a step ahead though.
Van Der Mark also has an extra year of experience on the bike/team, does he not?
I read somewhere (yes, it was here) that Van Der Mark was taking his team mate to school this year. Did they cancel school today due to rain?
Nicky was faster than VDM in dry qualifying, and he’s been equally fast in qualifying throughout the season. What he hasn’t been is the least bit fortunate, with at least two mechanical DNFs plus an inexplicably bad tire leading to what was essentially another DNF.
About all we can safely glean from this season’s results is that his Honda can’t hang with the factory Kawis and Davies’ Ducati on a dry track, he’s basically as fast as his teammate, and in the wet he’s still tough to beat.
Van Der Mark beat Hayden in race 1. It was race 2 that Nicky won. Van der Mark sits in fourth in the championship vs. 6th for Hayden. School is in session.
Through no fault of his own, Nicky has multiple DNFs that haven’t plagued VDM. There’s your point differential.
Was he ahead of VDM each time he dnf’d. To me they show very equal riding abilities filling in the 4/5 finishing spot in the grid.
If you watched Race 1 you would have seen that Nicky was running up front until the soft tire faded. Bad tire choice prevented a double podium for Nicky. DVM is a very strong rider. Nicky seems to be less reckless than VDM. I would not say VDM has been schooling Nicky. The gaps haven’t been that far apart. We aren’t seeing Stoner/melandri type gaps. If anything, VDM will benefit from Nicky’s ability to set up a bike.
School has been suspended.
Nicky is 10 points behind VDM. Ten. His bike broke twice. If he had been able to finish those races, he would be leading VDM in the points. Even one of them, and he’s essentially tied with VDM. By your logic, that would mean that Nicky is taking VDM to school. But that would be a ridiculous statement.
In reality, both Honda riders are doing quite well on an old bike design. No one in the racing world would say that either rider is out-shining the other. They have gone back and forth in qualifying. They have finished very closely in most of the races when neither of them had issues. They are clearly (to most people) very evenly matched lapping a dry track.
Now, let’s see. Nicky is learning a new bike, new tires, several new tracks, and a different group of riders than he’s competed with before. Yet, he’s not only hanging right with the pack, he’s excelling on wet tracks. He’s had a couple of issues with bad tires/poor tire choices/poor pit stop strategy that cost him places. That’s part of the learning curve, but has nothing to do with his riding talent.
Van Der Mark is a fine young rider, who probably has a bright future. But this notion that he’s “embarrassing” Nicky, or “taking him to school” is just ignorant.
What he said.
Yup
In all fairness, Hayden hasn’t been on a top bike since, like 2008. Rain is the great equalizer..next season may be more telling, when Honda supposed to have the new bike..will show how much left he’s got left in the tank..
Nicky on a bike as consistently fast as the Kawis ……. 🙂
Would be awesome to see an American on top. Lance Armstrong must have sold $10 billion worth of new bicycles in the US, as a result of his wins, in that other two wheeled sport only foreigners care about.
Lets wait for a dry win before declaring Hayden as, hmmm, whatever
This shows Hayden is still relevant. Honda now has to prepare a bike that is as well.
Yeah, but let’s also wait for a better bike…
I knew this was coming, that people would say he won because of the rain. How about –
He won IN the rain. Not everyone can do that, remember…including the guys on faster bikes in the same conditions.
Regardless, he won because of the rain. No rain = he doesn’t win.
As you well know, when it comes to racing, rain is the great equalizer.
He beat British born (where it rains all the time) champions, among others, on better budgeted equipment.
He was also 2nd quick in the dry warm up, was he not?
Yep, and yep.
See?! The Honda is fully competitive! There is no reason Nicky shouldn’t win this championship! I’m tellin’ ya’, give lil’ Dani Nicky’s ride and he’d mop the floor with these guys! (Or at least finish second.)
-mickey
🙂
Wow look at the glee on everyones face….no wait that’s shock lol. Didn’t watch the race, what happen, the first 5 guys all go down?
Just kidding. Congrats to Nicky. Finally a format where he may again be competitive.
What happened? The only thing that could make the Honda competitive, of course.
A wet track.