Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team’s Nicky Hayden and Stefan Bradl have scored their first top-10 results of the season today by finishing ninth and tenth, respectively, in the opening race at Chang International Circuit. With this result and the new grid format for race two, Hayden will start the second encounter of the Thai round from sixth place on the grid, while Bradl will again occupy the sixteenth slot.

Hayden got a good start from fourteenth position on the grid and was able to move up a couple of places during the opening lap; as the race progressed, he put up a good battle with Camier for eleventh place and, after having the better of Xavi Fores for tenth in the final stages, he was elevated to ninth on the final lap after Eugene Laverty’s technical problem.

Bradl’s first lap was not as easy, as the 27-year-old German was pushed wide at turn one; he therefore ended up losing some positions as he was unable to get the best drive out on to the long straight. In the second part of the encounter and with less tyre grip, Bradl was able to improve his pace and make some ground to the riders ahead, eventually snatching tenth place from Fores at the final corner.

The second and final race of the Thai round will get underway tomorrow at 16:00 local time (GMT +7), after the 15-minute warm up session scheduled at 11:30.


Nicky Hayden 69 - 9th

For Superpole this morning we made quite a few changes to the setup to try and sort out the engine braking and I started to feel a bit better on the bike, although I am yet to find the right feeling. I made a good start to the race and stayed in the group fighting for eighth; I hung on in there, trying to learn as much as possible and to see what was our pace like. On some parts of the track the bike was working well, while on others we were struggling a bit. We will take this ninth position but we still need to find some more consistency with the bike, which would allow me to push and ride it the way I like. However, there is still one night and the warm up to try some new stuff ahead of race two.

Stefan Bradl 6 - 10th

The race was not too bad. The bike is becoming better and, although there is still a lot of work to do, in the second half of the race I managed to set some strong times. My best lap was a 1.35.0 just before the chequered flag despite the overtake on Fores at the last corner. What we need to improve the most, though, is our performance at the beginning of the race, because the electronics don’t seem to work at their best with fresh tyres. All in all we have found some consistency and that’s a great thing, but we need to improve our pace.

Pieter Breddels

We entered the race with some unknowns still, because there were still things to be sorted out after Superpole. What we decided to focus on was to give the riders a package they could be consistent with and we kind of hit the target with that. Nicky got a good start and was able to join the battle for eighth place and rode a great race to ninth place at the line. There is still some work to do ahead of race two, but there was an improvement nonetheless. Stefan took a bit more time to get up to speed, but in the second part of the race and especially in the closing stages he was able to settle into a nice rhythm. We need to look now into the data to make sure he can be competitive in the first part of the race as well. Overall, we are still far from where we want to be, but we are making steps in the right direction.