VOL. 53 ISSUE 27 JULY 12, 2016 P67
Hayden (Honda World Superbike) had
an astoundingly popular podium finish in
race one, and even felt he would have
been in with a strong shout for another
had the second race not been stopped
and restarted. Instead of 25 laps, there
were 21. Instead of his good front-end
feel from the first part, he got a bad front
feeling of some kind and had to fight for
every one of his fifth-place points.
He had to fight hard in the final corner
of the first race as his own teammate Mi-
chael van der Mark attempted a pass on
him—on the ambitious side of too late—but
it was all safe enough and Hayden held
on to third while van der Mark finished up
fourth.
For Hayden, his first race podium was
a joy he tried to hide, but on the box
at home was a particularly happy thing
when you do not have either a Kawasaki
or Ducati factory bike.
"I knew I was vulnerable on the brakes
because I couldn't brake as I wanted, but
I figured Michael was going to try me,"
said Hayden of his final corner sort-out.
"I knew he wasn't going to follow me,
and I was so slow into that corner I could
not enter. I felt him there and realized my
Davide Giugliano had a
race one to forget, crashing
out of third place.
