Ducati Marlboro Team riders Nicky Hayden and Mika Kallio are confident of putting on a performance to delight the thousands of Ducatisti in the crowd at tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix after qualifying sixth and eleventh respectively in this afternoon’s qualifying session. Hayden was the second fastest rider on track in the first and final sections of the Misano circuit but, like yesterday, he struggled with the fast right-hander in T3. However, on his penultimate lap the American shaved two tenths off his previous best through that sector alone to improve his overall best time by three tenths and move up to the second row for the second successive race. Kallio also made progresses but not enough to improve his position on the time sheets and the Finn will start from row four.


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After taking 2nd fastest in the rain during yesterday’s first practice session, Ducati’s Nicky Hayden dropped back in the field to log the 7th fastest time this morning during the second session and ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying. Dani Pedrosa had no such problems switching from wet to dry conditions and remains at the top, the only rider into the 1′40″ range.


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The MotoGP World Championship returned to Indianapolis today and was again struck by the wet weather curse that saw last year’s race cancelled with eight laps remaining. Thankfully there was no sign of the high winds from twelve months ago and the first free practice session went ahead without delay, with the impressive Nicky Hayden and stand-in team-mate Mika Kallio lapping second and eleventh fastest respectively in the soaking conditions.


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Nicky Hayden recorded his second best result of the season so far at Brno today, where he crossed the line in sixth place following a weekend of hard work and continual progress with his team. The American didn't get the best of starts and was boxed in by the group around him but he fought back to regain positions and kept pace with the riders ahead of him to take the chequered flag less than four seconds behind the final podium finisher.

Mika Kallio, making his debut for the Ducati Marlboro Team in place of Casey Stoner, produced a competitive pace but was unable to make it to the end of his first race with the team following a misunderstanding with Marco Melandri, the two riders colliding and crashing out of their battle for eighth place. However, it was a satisfying weekend for the Finn, a rookie in the MotoGP class, who has set competitive lap times all weekend.


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