MARLBORO DUCATI man Nicky Hayden said he was "bitterly disappointed" after crashing out in the early stages of the final race of the 2010 MotoGP season at Valencia.
Looking strong from the start, Hayden lost the front end of his Desmosedici entering the uber-fast left-hander at the end of Valencia's start-finish straight. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion walked away from the ensuing 110mph tumble - his bike, however, didn't fair so well. Lucky, then, it's now deemed as 'last year's' model.
Following the race, Hayden said:
“I am bitterly disappointed with the result today. After the warm-up this morning when I set the fastest time I really felt confident we could get a good result today and I pushed hard from the start. The bike felt good and I was able to make up a few positions into the first turn, then pass Dani for second place.
"To crash just a couple of laps later is frustrating because I had the pace to be fighting for the podium out there. It is definitely not the way I wanted to end the season and my guys deserved more after another great job this weekend. We had our problems with the bike on Friday but we pulled something out of the bag and I had a competitive bike here.
"Overall over the past few races we have ended the season quite strongly and I am looking forward to taking that into winter testing and hopefully coming out with an even more competitive package next year.”
Hayden is joined next year at Ducati by nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi.
