World champion left with mixed feelings after Portuguese Grand Prix 
Nicky Hayden rode a combative Portuguese Grand Prix, recording
the fastest lap of the race at Estoril, but was still disappointed with
fourth place.
The American's dismay would have come from qualifying on pole
position, but not being able to convert that pace advantage into a
victory, as slipped to third at the first corner and then battled with
Valentino Rossi and Marco Melandri in the early stages.
After getting the better of Melandri's Honda, it appeared that the
world champion had lost too much ground on the leaders.
However, a series of scorching laps, including the fastest of the
race and a new lap record, put Hayden back on Casey Stoner's
tail and apparently on course for a potential podium finish.
"We knew it was going to be tough today and the first lap wasn't
so kind to me, but actually I was just happy to get through the
first lap after what happened at the last race," Hayden
commented, "In the beginning, I wasn't quite able to get into a
rhythm, and was really struggling out of turn six and some riders
were able to get up the inside of me into seven. I was duking it
out with Melandri, which lost me some time, but then I found a
rhythm, got down into the 1min 37s laps and caught up to
Stoner."
Unfortunately, a mistake with seven laps to go dropped Hayden
crucial tenths behind the Australian, and he was left to bring the
Repsol Honda RC212V across the line in fourth place.
“There are a lot of positives from this weekend and pole position
was one of them, though certainly fourth wasn't quite the result
we hoped for," Hayden sighed, "I was riding right on the edge and
used up a lot of my tyres to try to catch the leaders, and then I
made one big mistake which cost me a lot of time.
"But my bike ran really well today. The engine was good and the
Michelin tyres worked well, so I really don't have a lot of excuses
– those guys were just a little bit quicker and I give them credit.
This was my first pole position of the year and I had the fastest
lap of the race, which is..." click on ozzy go to the full story
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