Honda rider Nicky Hayden had a day of some contrasts on track at Laguna Seca on his Fireblade for the first time. The 2-time MotoGP winner at the track had been hoping everything would immediately click into place, but a few issues to iron out – chiefly with electronics – saw the home hero pushing hard at the end of the day to ensure entry to Superpole 2. In the final few minutes of the day, Hayden put in his quickest laptime to take P3 – the fastest rookie by a margin and impressing once again in his first year.

“To be honest, it hasn’t been as smooth as I’d hoped – you know you always hope everything’s just going to go smooth!” explained Hayden after FP2. “We’ve had a few more problems than I’d hoped this week with electronics, trying to get all the sections to work in the right way, and it’s been a bit frustrating but there at the end we put in new tyres but I cut it a little close to improve my laptime! We’ve got some good things and overall it’s not a disaster on the first day.”

Hayden’s first GP win came at his home circuit of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, when the American took victory from pole in 2005. It was also the track to give the Kentucky Kid his first win in AMA Superbike, and he’s ready to attack the next challenge in the bid to add a WorldSBK win to his record at the California venue – Tissot-Superpole.

“Qualifying hasn’t been my strong point but I’ve been improving and Misano was the closest I’ve been to the front row,” added Hayden. “So we’re going to attack it! It’s great to be back at Laguna and great to see so many people here, so let’s hope we can keep improving and do something better in the next two days.”

Tissot-Superpole gets underway at 11:30 local time (GMT -7), before lights out for Race 1 at 14:30 as the famous – and infamous – Corkscrew comes under attack from WorldSBK.